Harry Potter and the Death Game
by Rennerd
Summary: 'You are all trapped in my death game', 'These muggle games might be bloody awesome after all Hermione', 'No one's tried to kill me in months, I was getting pretty bored.', 'Honestly, there's no helping you two. Guess I need to manage your level ups for you.' Thrillseeking golden trio. Rated M because I'm not sure what'll happen, and it would be a hassle to change it later.
1. Chapter 1

A.N. Just a stupid idea I had while rewatching SAO. As per usual for me; don't expect regular updates, I only write when the mood takes me. Plus, not really sure I can make a proper story out of this, I may just go into 'snippet mode'.

So; I'll admit the characters are likely somewhat ooc, but then Harry going 'I need to try and save people' and beating himself up about not managing it sounds boring, so I made some changes.

* * *

The crowd was silent in the face of the proclamation; they couldn't leave until the game was clear, death in the game would mean death in real life. It sounded like the words of a madman, but everyone believed it. There was silence as the figure of the man hovered over them like some kind of grim deity of death.

Until someone laughed. Space cleared around the voice, revealing four figures. One, a rather bulky blond, second, a bushy haired woman, who wouldn't be called pretty, rather suiting the phrase 'plain Jane', third, a black haired guy with a scar on his forehead that you wouldn't really notice if you weren't that close to him, and fourth, the laughing figure, a red haired guy, who was rather lanky.

The red head turned to the woman, "Hermione, I was kind of sceptical when you told me about these muggle video games, but this changed my mind. This sounds bloody awesome."

"Ronald!" The woman hissed, looking around frantically, "Ixnay on the uggle may."

"I agree with Ron." The black haired guy said, nodding his head, "If there's no risk of bodily harm, where's the fun?"

"Harry, you're bloody mental!" the blond said.

The figure in the sky vanished, with a small grin on his face.

The black haired figure drew his sword, pointing it towards the nearest town gate, "Now, let us be off into the night, after that ever flighty temptress, Adventure!" he proclaimed, before charging off, the red head hot on his heels. The bushy haired woman shook her head with a resigned sigh, before dashing off after them.

The blonde man shook his head, "I'll never get those bloody weirdo's" he said, before chasing after them, "Harry, wait up!"

The silence held a moment longer before everyone broke out in a panic, though it was clear no one would forget those who laughed in the face of such bad news.

* * *

Harry slowed down as he passed through the gate out of town, allowing Ron to catch up to him, and joining Harry walking pace. A moment later, Hermione and Dudley caught up.

"This isn't a joke Harry; we really could die!" Dudley bit out.

Harry nodded, "I know. I understand why you're upset, but wizard society is different from the muggle one. I regularly play a sport that could, well, let's just say that an item akin to cannonball can smack me in the face, before I take a fall of several hundred feet. There have been casualties, not sure how many"

"About two and a half thousand," Hermione interjected, "that's about one or two per year, worldwide, on average."

Harry nodded, "Right, and the other main sport, duelling, well, lethal force is permitted in all the official tournaments."

Ron nodded, "Right, you remember the Clarence duel, the semi-final last year? Brutal stuff."

Harry grinned, "Right, and I've been in deadly situations every year when I was at school. You know we defeated Voldemort right?"

Dudley nodded weakly, "Y-yeah. You mentioned it."

"Ever since then, well, life's been a bit, boring, I guess. It's all samey. I mean, becoming an Auror's cool and all, but dreadfully boring. It's about time another adventure showed up."

Hermione shook her head ruefully, "I'd had my fill of adventure."

Ron chuckled, "Then picture this as looking out for us on our adventure. And I seem to remember a certain someone being really into our last great adventure."

She blushed slightly, "We don't have magic this time." She pointed out.

Harry chuckled, "Hermione, Professor Dumbledore once said our magic is within our hearts wherever we go." He looked around, "Magic isn't something that can be explained scientifically, there's no 'manipulating mana' or anything like that, it's just… doing stuff. Aha." He finished, spotting a pebble. He reached out a hand towards it, "The fact that this world is in our heads, doesn't make it any less real, and I can _really_ do _magic._ " He stressed the last word.

Hermione sighed, "I don't know how many times I've tried to explain how this works, and I don't fancy trying again. Harry you can't… use…" her eyes widened as the stone began moving towards them. It dropped about halfway to them though.

Harry grinned, lowering his hand, "something I've been working on." He said proudly, "I mean, we all remember Dumbledore lighting candles with a wave of his hand right, it's really difficult, but we can do wandless magic, I figure most just see no reason to bother, given wands are easier, and almost always present."

"I don't believe it." Hermione muttered.

"Harry's a bit better than me though, I can barely make something wobble." Ron said forlornly.

"You'll get there Ron." Harry encouraged.

"And what about me." Dudley said acidly, "I can't do magic, and I don't want to die."

Harry chuckled, "Come on Dudders, it'll be like old time, you can beat up all the little monsters."

He winced, "Please don't remind me of that, and don't call me Dudders."

Harry shrugged, "Then wait in the safe zone. We'll watch each other's backs, but accidents can happen. You don't need to risk your life if you don't want to."

Dudley remained silent, in thought.

"We'll have to make wands." Ron said, "we can't rely on the parlour tricks we can manage right now."

"That won't work" Hermione insisted, "Even if there are digital creatures that resemble magical ones, they won't have the magical properties to make wands." She stressed.

"Maybe. Maybe not. We won't know until we try. Besides, I think you're missing the picture." Harry said with a mad grin, "We may be wizards, but in this game, we should be beating the crap out of things with swords." He drew his sword, spotting a pack of wolves in the distance, "Sure, cheating at games is traditional as a wizard, but let's play by the rules for now. It could be fun."

Ron eagerly drew his sword, and Dudley did so with reluctance. Hermione sighed, "Fine, you win, we'll play the game."

"Knew you'd see it our way." Ron grinned, throwing her a wink.

"But," she said fiercely, drawing her sword, "You'll do what I tell you to when it comes to distributing skills. I'm going to optimise your builds."

Harry laughed, "I have no idea what that means, but if you're in, then sure. Now, let's have fun. It's a shame they don't have a troll; it would be just like old times."

Hermione's cheeks reddened, "Oh, hush you." She muttered, as Harry and Ron rushed towards the wolves, smiling in spite of herself.


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N. Quick response to reviews; I tried to explain in chapter, but Dudley is present because I felt he was both a means to enter SAO, because having a 'muggle' tagging along amused me, and because I felt like trying to turn him into a decent character after coming across the scene where Dumbledore talks about the damage the Dursley's inflicted on their son again.**

 **I think I said before, but they won't be trying to save everone. I'll try and justify that in a later chapter. If you like that sort of thing, I'd direct you to a certain fate/stay SAO crossover. What they can do with magic is incredibly limited, at least thus far. Of course, I've thought of a rather simple yet completely OP thing they could do that would effectively break the game. If only the characters could think of it.**

* * *

Dudley Dursley was, in almost every way, an ordinary teenager on the threshold of becoming an adult. He was built rather heavily, something that lent itself well to the sport of boxing, especially after he had lost the weight that he had brought upon himself as a youth.

He believed in his own strength; don't get him wrong, he knew that his punch couldn't defeat someone wielding a gun, and he probably would prefer to not try his luck against someone with a knife, but he had always believed that there was nothing he couldn't overcome, with either his physical strength or his wits (though recently he could admit to himself that he may have been somewhat lacking in that department).

Everything had changed, however, when he was fifteen. He had been teasing his freak of a cousin, who could do magic, something that, in hindsight, he was incredibly envious of, as well as terrified. He had encountered _them. Dementors._ There had been nothing he could do; his strength was meaningless against an enemy he couldn't see, and his wits, such as they were, fled him under the oppressive feeling they brought. His cousin had saved him. But the wound went deeper than that; Dudley was forced to examine himself, and he had no choice but to come to the conclusion that he was not a very nice person. It had taken time, more than he would like to admit, to conclude that, but he had eventually tried to make amends to the people he had wronged.

This had left him in a bit of a quandary. He had no way to contact his cousin, the person whom he may have needed to apologise to most of all. He had gotten the location of the entrance to the magical world from his mother, after much arguing, but he hadn't been able to find it. He'd found an empty lot. He hadn't given up; he'd waited, until he'd spotted people disappearing there, and he'd grabbed one as they did so, following them in.

After much surprised and somewhat angry discussion, he eventually managed to talk to Harry. His cousin hadn't exactly been warm to him, which he could admit he'd deserved, but he had pleaded for a chance to make it up to him. After a while, Harry had relented, and they tried to mend their relationship. It was hard; Dudley was still somewhat nervous about magic, and Harry's red-headed friends in particular, for obvious reasons, but they had been getting closer.

Then he had heard about the nerve gear. He'd had some money saved up, and had bought four. One for himself, one for his cousin, and a pair for his cousin's closest friends. He had managed, with Hermione's help, to get them to agree to try out the new game, Sword Art Online. For Dudley, this wasn't just a chance to have fun with his cousin; it was also a way to try and make up to Harry about their childhood, where Dudley had had every little thing he wanted, and Harry had had only the things he had discarded.

Of course, then the creator of the system, Kayaba Akihiko, had gone mental, turning it into a death game. Dudley had been terrified, he didn't want to die playing a video game, especially not when he had only recently turned eighteen. He had become an adult, but he really didn't feel like he could call himself such until he'd been forgiven for his youthful misdemeanours.

He had then seen Harry's face; he was smiling. The thought of possibly dying, which terrified Dudley, excited him. It was something he couldn't really understand. He'd been told about how wizards were rather laid back about mortal peril, but seeing his cousin and his friends deal with it first-hand, it was something else.

That was when Dudley decided; he'd support Harry. He'd do everything he could, even risking his life, if it meant Harry could truly enjoy this experience. He'd spent an entire childhood doing everything he could to try and make Harry miserable, risking his life to make up for that may be somewhat extreme, but to Dudley, he had a feeling like it was proof that he had changed; he was no longer the selfish little boy that only cared about himself, and somehow thought that making others miserable, meant that he was somehow happier.

"Hey Dudley!" came a voice. He turned, spotting his cousin.

"What is it Harry?" he asked.

"I just heard about a new quest, you in?" Harry replied, with his grin in place.

Dudley flicked his hand, going through his menu and equipping his gear, "Sure. Lead the way." He responded, a grin forming on his face. Harry's mood seemed infectious.

Before he realised it, he was beginning to enjoy the game.

* * *

Hermione frowned, lost in thought. While she wasn't particularly excited by the prospect of sudden death, she enjoyed the way Ron and Harry seemed to come alive when it showed up. She idly stepped to the side, dodging the charge attack of the digital boar. She moved her arm, triggering the system assist, as her sword lashed out, damaging the enemy.

She'd said she'd optimise the builds, to give them the best chance of surviving this, and she meant it, but there was so much she didn't know! She'd seen that levelling up gave them stat point increases they could spend, and that skills levelled up with use, seemingly independently. She knew that physical build didn't effect either the stats or the build, but would it be worth having Dudley use two-handed weapons due to his larger build? The way he moved was likely more suited to them than, say, daggers. Besides that, she knew about several of the skills, including things like tailoring, or blacksmithing, even cooking, which weren't really necessary for building broken characters. On the other hand, having characters with them could be beneficial, it gave them the possibility of crafting the best gear themselves. And if they could do magic? What gear could they create using that? Then again, from what she could tell, forging was further broken down into different types of skills, so it would take up a lot of slots to do so if they went with a variety of weapon types, and they currently only had two slots. There was too much she didn't know.

Concealing what they were capable of from non-magical players was something she was unsure of whether they should attempt. If it was found out, they could maybe pass some off as a glitch, but if they couldn't? She'd already seen the air of displeasure about the beta-players having an unfair advantage, people would probably react poorly upon finding out what they could have done. Well, it was a moot point unless they could manage something more impressive than wobbling stones.

More than that, there was the fact that they could do magic in the digital world. While Harry and Ron seemed to expect that, and accept it as perfectly normal, it wasn't something she could understand. Everything in this world was run by 'the system', which was probably physically located in Japan. There was no way they were casting spells on that, so how did it work? She thirsted for the knowledge like a man dying in the desert thirsted for water.

She'd known about wandless magic, of course, it was something many seventh years played with, and was considered a post-Hogwarts art. She'd been surprised by Harry and Ron practicing it, neither were particularly the studious type, and typically preferred not to work that hard if a sudden risk of death wasn't involved.

She idly wondered how the magic would show up to the system. No doubt it observed everything that happened, how would it respond to something it couldn't have been programmed to expect? No doubt such errors would confuse it.

* * *

"Error."

He was really starting to hate that sound. He turned to look at the window. His eyes quickly scanned through the text, causing him to sigh.

One or two errors wasn't really surprising, there was only so many things the beta players could find and report. He kept an eye on things for just that reason, he didn't want any mistakes to ruin the game.

"Error."

He scanned the new window. But this was absurd. So many errors, and they all centred around the same four players, and only when those players weren't near others. It was too much to be a coincidence.

A gesture brought up the player's information. First, Gryffin, real name Harry Potter. Second, Weasel, real name Ronald Weasley. Third, Kittycat, real name Hermione Granger, and lastly, Piggy, real name Dudley Dursley.

He remembered them, they were the players who were excited when he announced the settings he'd placed on the game.

His lips curled upwards in amusement, how fascinating. They warranted further observation. Maybe he'd hold off on joining the game for now.

* * *

 **A.N. So; another short chapter. I'm thinking I'll write in this sort of style, rather than proper chapters.**

 **I've got a few ideas, but I'll ask for input anyway. What weapons/skills should they choose? I'm thinking two handed sword/axe for Dudley, mace/staff for Hermione, sword and shield for Ron, and possibly a spear for Harry.**

 **Since I'm not tying this down with a hard plot beyond sword art canon, any scenes people would like to see? Right now, I'm thinking I'll keep it somewhat chronological; avoiding jumping to an end game scene, then to a first floor scene, etc, though I may just put rough time guide on scenes so I can write whatever pops into my head.**

 **As for pairings, I'll say I'm going with RonxHermione, maybe some hints of trauma induced RonxHermionexHarry, though Harry is, by my thinking currently single for whatever reason.**

 **Right, one last thing; the avatar names were chosen by Harry, his idea of a joke, plus a slight Marauders reference with animal theme.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N. So; After some thoughts about the comments I've recieved, the weapon choices have been refined somewhat. Not absolutely decided. Dudley gets a two handed hammer or something, Ron gets either a sword/axe and shield, Harry's leaning towards a katana, or simply a one handed sword, and Hermione's probably a staff or spear. Question time; Does forging require a blunt weapon skill? from a quick look around, it doesn't, and Lisbeth's mace skill is just coincedence, but I wasn't sure.**

* * *

Harry had changed. This was something he'd observed. Hermione had observed it. Ginny had observed it. Even others, people they weren't so close to, had noticed it. Ginny had tried to force answers out of him, against Ron's advice, and their relationship hadn't been rekindled.

Hermione had wanted to, but Ron had managed to convince her to give him space. The details were somewhat murky; they knew he had gone off alone to face Voldemort, and Voldemort had paraded his corpse around. He'd gotten better.

Ron looked over at Harry. He had a pensive look on his face, stuck in his thoughts, as he oft was when his attention wasn't focused on something. It was fine; Harry would tell him when he was ready.

"Hey Harry." Ron called out.

Harry looked over with a 'hm?' sound, "Yeah?"

"Did you know there's a marriage function in this game?"

Harry blinked, "I didn't. Why?"

"Well," Ron hedged, "I was thinking, should I, you know, ask Hermione?" against his wishes, his cheeks had turned red in embarrassment.

Harry stared at him.

"W-well, you know, I thought I'd ask your opinion, you know?"

"Because my love life is such a smashing success." Harry replied drily.

Ron chuckled, "Well, I'd have preferred to ask Dad, but, well, you know, we can't."

"Honestly? I don't know. Do you think you're ready for that?"

Ron shrugged, "We could die any day. I feel like, if I let this chance slip by, I'd always regret it, you know?"

Harry looked away, frowning. "Then ask. Though, shouldn't it be, romantic or something?"

Ron scratched his head, "So I should, pick flowers or something?"

"Dunno. Never asked anyone." Harry replied.

"hmm." Ron frowned. This was difficult.

"You should probably wait until she's got her head wrapped around the rules of SAO."

"Yeah, Dudley's telling her about his experiences with other games. Hopefully they should figure out what they're doing soon."

They walked in silence for a while. They were trying to make it to the next town, hopefully before other players picked up all the quests.

"Hey Ron." Harry called out.

"Yeah?"

"What happens after you die?"

Ron blinked at the unexpected question. "According to that Kayoba guy, you die in real life."

"Kayaba." Harry corrected idly, "And I meant, if we die in the real world."

Ron pursed his lips in thought. "Dunno. Hadn't considered it."

Harry 'hmmed'.

Ron frowned, he had a feeling this was something to do with the change that had came over his best mate. Should he say something? Or should he wait for Harry to open up? Bloody hell, this was frustrating.

Thankfully the uncomfortable silence cut off as they heard the sounds of fighting. Looking past some trees, they saw a player fighting several boars.

The two of them exchanged glances, grins appearing on their faces. Harry drew his sword, levelling it at the enemies, "Once more unto the breach dear friends," He yelled.

"Unto the breach once more!" Ron laughed, as they took off at a sprint.

The boars were easily dispatched. They were easy opponents even when they were level one, and they'd all levelled up since then. Ron took the opportunity to examine the other player. Shorter than the two of them, probably around fourteen, though he was Asian, and Ron found it hard to be sure about guessing such a person's age. He considered for a moment that the player may have been female, but his gut told him it was a guy.

The boy frowned. "I had it covered."

Ron shrugged.

"Sorry," Harry apologised, "We weren't sure, and didn't want to risk your life."

The guy shook his head, "No, I shouldn't blame you. Thanks for the assist, I suppose." He finished with a nod, before turning away.

"Hold up," Ron interrupted.

The guy turned back with a questioning look.

"Do you know the way to the next town?" He asked.

The guy stared at them. "You can check the map; you know?"

Ron laughed, "I've never checked a map in my life!" He declared, absurdly proud of that fact.

It was true, Harry usually checked any maps, rather than Ron.

The boy sighed. "Open up your menu, you should be able to find the icon for the map."

Ron made no move to do so, so with a sigh, Harry did so in his place. "Huh, you're right."

The boy sighed again, "Follow me, I was returning there anyway."

"Great!" Ron exclaimed.

The boy shot them subtle glances. Oh right! Manners. See, he could learn, Hermione!

"I'm Ron. This is Harry." He pointed his thumb at Harry.

"It's bad manners to use real names here." Harry pointed out.

"I'm not using that stupid name you stuck me with." Ron responded immediately.

Harry grinned.

The boy stared at them for a moment. "Kirito." He introduced himself finally.

"Nice to meet you." Ron said happily, thrusting out his hand. This is how muggles said hello, right?

Kirito stared oddly at the hand, before giving it a shake.

They walked in silence for a while.

"Hey Harry." Ron said.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think there'll be dragons in the game?" He asked.

"Dunno. Maybe?"

Kirito looked like he wanted to say something. Ron stared at him expectantly.

"I, er, heard that there weren't any found in the beta, but most games like this do have them." He muttered.

Ron beamed, "Great! Harry, we have to fight a dragon!" He paused, "Or tickle a sleeping one!"

Harry burst into laughter, while Kirito stared at them as if they were crazy, "You could die you know? You shouldn't take risks."

"Bah, what's life without a risk or ten." Ron dismissed with a hand wave.

"Death waiting round every corner, it's like old times." Harry admitted with a soft smile.

Kirito's eyes widened, "Ah, I remember you guys! You're the guys from the opening ceremony!"

Ron beamed again, "That was me!" He bragged.

"Do you think this is a game?" Kirito asked, "Some kind of joke?"

Harry shook his head, "It's not like that. It's… I guess… The only time you're truly alive, is when you're within an inch of death." He finished.

Kirito stared at him as if he had said something crazy, "I think I can enjoy it more if I'm not in danger of dying."

Ron and Harry exchanged glances, before shrugging.

There was a howling sound as several wolves appeared.

Kirito drew his sword quickly, "This isn't right, there shouldn't be this many of this monster here." He muttered.

Harry and Ron drew their swords.

The three of them rushed forward, swords glowing as they activated their skills.

* * *

"Hey Harry." Ron called out.

They had defeated the wolves handily. Kirito was a skilled and powerful player.

"Yeah?" Harry responded. Kirito stared at them, no doubt confused at the repetitive pattern of their conversations.

"Do you think I should use an axe?"

"Why?"

"Well," Ron scratched at his chin, the stubbly attempt at a beard. "Both you and Neville used that sword. It's like, your thing. I wanna be part of it, but at the same time, it might be nice to go my own way, you know?"

"Well, you're not wrong." He muttered, "The game is called Sword Art, I hadn't really considered using something else."

"Different weapons have different traits and skills." Kirito interjected, "The weapon you choose should coincide with the way you want to play. A sword is simply one of the most well balanced weapons. Of course, different monsters are more resistant to different types of damage. If you make a party, it's generally worth trying to consider balancing damage output types."

"You know a lot about it right?" Harry observed.

Kirito looked away, "Well, I know some stuff."

They walked on in an easy silence.

* * *

Ginny looked down into Harry's sleeping face. She had come to visit them, all three of them. And Dudley, she supposed. They were being kept in St Mungos, though an unspeakable had had to do something to the headgear they were wearing, so it wouldn't run out of electricity.

She looked over to the bed where Hermione lay, her parents sat at her sides, holding her hands. The Weasley's usually sent over one person a day to see them, and today it was Ginny, but Hermione's parents had already been here, though they hadn't said a word since she arrived.

She turned back to Harry. He had changed. It was obvious, though spelling down on just what had changed wasn't so easy. She'd tried to pry, to get him to open up to her (against her brother's advice) but he'd pulled away, their relationship not rekindling like a healthy phoenix.

She reached down and brushed her fingers through the hair she could see beneath the helmet.

She looked up as the lights seemed to flicker, dimming until the room was bathed in the sort of twilight that existed between night and day. Obeying some instinct formed at the Death Eater held Hogwarts, she span around, levelling her wand at the door, or rather, the figure that appeared in front of the door.

"Wh-who are you?" Came the raspy voice of one of Hermione's parents.

The cowled figure turned slightly, the unnatural darkness in place of a face observing the muggles. "…You may call me… Brown. Unspeakable."

"Did you have to dim the lights?" Ginny demanded.

The darkness turned towards her. "… According to the handbook, Unspeakables must… make a dramatic entrance."

"I nearly cursed you." Ginny pointed out, sheathing her wand.

"…you nearly tried." Brown corrected.

"Are you here to get my daughter out?" Hermione's mother pleaded.

Brown turned to look at her, "…No. We have ideas that may work… but there is a risk of brain damage. If it was Potter… he'd probably be fine, but we won't take the risk."

"Then why are you here?" Ginny asked.

Brown turned back to look at her. The slow motion they were using to do it was kind of pissing her off. "… Ever since the muggles made the internet, we have been trying to make a magical version. A 'M-internet' if you will. The system used by the nerve gear is of particular interest to us. I have come… to examine it."

Ginny scowled as the unspeakable moved over to the other side of Harry's bed, waving its wand over his head.

"Why don't you just plug one of your own guys into it?"

"…We were going to." The unspeakable admitted. "We wanted… to wait a couple of months for bugs to be fixed before we… began poking around at it."

"Don't ignore us!" Hermione's dad began storming towards the cowled figure.

Brown turned, waving its wand at the muggles, "Don't… interrupt me."

The muggles blinked, turning back to their chairs, sitting down before dozing off.

"That was mean. They're just concerned about Hermione."

"…I have no interest… in those people."

Ginny scowled, crossing her arms she leaned back against the wall. "Well, Hurry it up. I have to get back to school, but I'm not leaving you alone with them."

The unspeakable turned to look at her. "…Do you think… you could do anything? If I wanted… to hurt them?" Before Ginny could respond, they continued, "Never mind… I'm done." Brown disappeared, with no soft pop that apparating normally produced.

The Grangers started stirring. Ginny sighed, they were going to shout at her again.


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N. So; first floor boss meeting time. Unfortunately, [Articulate] isn't in my skill list, so I may have rolled a critical fail at my [Epic Speech] check. Eh, kind of a mix up between the anime and novels.**

 **I said it before, but I'll say it again; Trying to avoid tying it down with some big plot, trying to avoid planning anything long term out, but my mind does keep trying to slip plot in. I'll tie this in to a review received, if any chapter feels 'fillerish' it's probably because I just wanted to enjoy writing Harry Potter in Sword Art Online without giving too much worry about the plot. Anyone who knows SAO knows the plot to this, more or less.**

 **Someone said something about there possibly being wizards/muggleborns in SAO. I don't want to throw in OC's, or fill everything up with minor HP characters, so that aside, does anyone have any ideas on that line? I thought Silica as a muggleborn was kind of amusing, but like I said, avoiding long term plans like that, or should I just scrap the idea entirely?**

 **Ugh, I wanted to keep it at 'short snippet' level, but it just kept getting longer. Oh well.**

 **Next chapter should be the boss fight, question time; what should I do with Diabel? I'm tempted to have him be saved, but that would likely be a major change, with major long term effect, whereas I'm also tempted to have him die, so I can try another roll against an [Epic Speech] check. It could likely go either way if I get no suggestions for it.**

 **Lastly, what wandless magic should they be practicing? I've got a few ideas, but I'm probably overlooking incredibly obvious ideas.**

 **Also, even if you don't have an opinion on my questions, please review. Are things I'm throwing in good? Interesting? Bad? Do you disagree with the way I'm having a character act, or speak?**

* * *

There were probably about fifty players gathered. Normally, Kirito tended to try and avoid gatherings of players. Part of it was his personality – he didn't do that well with other people. Another major part of it was feelings akin to guilt; he had used his knowledge as a beta tester to rush ahead, thinking only of increasing his own level, thereby increasing his own chances of surviving this death game. Not being a part of parties was the price he had imposed on himself.

The reason they were here was simple; The boss room had been discovered.

Kirito was a solo player. He preferred to fight alone. This wasn't just his personality, when he weighed the risks of playing alone against the gains, that is to say more Col, experience and item drops, it was worth the risks of solo play to attain the gains.

This wasn't true of boss fights. With his life on the line, there was no way he'd attempt to take on a boss single handed. The largest number of players that could form a party was six. Eight parties could form a raid group; To take the boss fight with zero casualties, it would be best to have two raid groups, to switch between them when players started to lose enough hp to be at risk. There was barely enough to form a single raid group.

He looked around at the players. He recognised the two he'd met in that forest; Harry and Ron. They, and the other two people they travelled with that day this started, were sat lounging near the back. But then; he was hardly a social player. Other than that, there were maybe five or six he knew by name, including Argo, who likely wouldn't be fighting.

"Okay people, now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started!" A man called out, clapping his hands.

With everyone's attention on him, he continued. "I want to thank everyone for coming. My name is Diabel, my job is 'knight'."

There was a round of laughs. Kirito understood the meaning, in SAO, unlike many games, there was no 'job' system. He was starting with a joke.

"The reason I called you here, is our party discovered the boss room at the top of the tower."

There were mutterings across the stadium. Kirito frowned, leaning forward. That was big news.

"We need to defeat the boss, making it to floor two. We can give hope to all the players who are staying in the town of beginnings. That is our duty as the most capable players here!"

After a tense moment, the people gathered began applauding.

"Great to know you're with me. Let's plan on how we're going to beat this boss!

"First, we'll make teams of six."

Kirito's eyes widened. He frantically looked around, panicking as he saw everyone else already grouping up. Spotting another person sitting alone, he shuffled over. "You got left out to, huh?"

"Not quite." The girl said, "Everyone seemed to be friends already, so I just stayed out of it."

Anything else she was going to say was cut off, "Hey, Kiribo!"

"Kirito." A voice corrected.

He turned, seeing the players from before, Ron and Harry, if he wasn't mistaken.

"You two can team up with us!" The red head said happily.

One of the other guys, Harry, stood up, walking over to them. After a moment of staring, the rest of his group followed.

"Well, there you go." Harry muttered. "So, want to fight beside us again?"

Kirito hesitated a moment, before answering. "Sure." It was safer to team up in a larger group against a boss.

Harry turned to his partner, even as he opened his menu to invite Kirito, "What about you?"

The person Kirito was talking to seemed to hesitate before responding. "Okay."

Kirito reached out to accept the party invite. He blinked in surprise as the names popped up in his view, _Griffin, Weasel, Kittycat_ and _Piggy?_ They were some strange choices, especially since they were in English. The final name surprised him though, _Asuna_ , did she use her real name? That was something almost no one would do in an online game, it was practically an unspoken rule.

"Okay, you about done forming parties? Now then,"

"Hold up a sec!" A voice shouted.

A player jumped down, landing next to Diabel. He had short orange hair, it made him look a bit like a cactus.

"My name's Kibaou. There's something I wanna say before we take on the boss. Some of the people here, need to apologise to the two thousand people who have already died!"

Kirito grimaced. It was obvious, to him at least, who he was talking to. The beta testers. It was true, that if they had tried, many deaths could have been averted, but it wasn't like beta testers were risk free. Among the dead, it was more than likely that many beta testers had also fallen.

"Kibaou, I think it's obvious, but you mean the beta players right?" Diabel spoke into the mutterings of the crowd.

"Of course!" Kibauo shouted. "When this began, they ditched us, grabbed all the good hunting spots, and the easy quests! They were the only ones getting stronger, while they ignored the rest of us!"

He pointed his fingers at the crowd, "I bet there's some here, we should make 'em get down on their knees and fork over all the good items and money they have!"

As Kirito grimaced, there was a loud slapping sound. He glanced over, seeing Harry with his hand on the stone bench he was sitting on.

"Hold up, I wanna interject there." He said coolly.

* * *

Harry got to his feet. Truthfully, he hated public speaking, but he knew what would happen if it was left on course. The fear mongering would take root. He'd been the victim in the court of public opinion too often to let it slide. He had to cut it off early.

He walked down to the stage, ignoring the loud 'what' from Kibaou.

"Who are you!?" the man said angrily.

"My name is Ha- no, I suppose I should say, I am Griffin."

He fixed his gaze on Kibaou, he was told it could be unsettling, and he wasn't disappointed as the man stepped back. "Well, what do you want to say?!"

Harry looked around at the crowd. "You say the beta testers should apologise to the dead, right? Hand over all the money and items they got to us?"

"Yeah? So?"

Harry span, pointing his finger at the man. "Do you know what the most important thing humans possess is!?"

"W-what?"

"Answer the question." Harry snapped.

"I-its, of course it's our lives! That's why what those Beta testers did is unforgivable!" He snapped back.

"You're wrong!" Harry barked.

There were angry mutterings, "More than anything else, the one thing that is most precious to humans is our ability to choose our own paths! Without the freedom of choice, we'd be little more than drones!"

He stared around at the crowd, "Two thousand or so players have died. That is a tragedy. However, _every player"_ he stressed, "that has died, whether to monsters, or one of those sad fools" the sorrow in his voice was clear as he said those words, "who took their own lives, every single player whom has died, did so as a result of their own choice! We _all_ knew the risks. Blaming anyone else for their death, aside from Akihiko Kayaba, who created this situation, is unforgivable."

He turned to face Kibaou, "If you don't want to die, stay in the starting city. Don't blame anyone else if 'your' choice turns out poorly."

He looked around again, "Blaming the beta testers for having an unfair advantage? That's simply life. Some people are born lucky, others not so much. Get over it." He finished coldly. His eyes met his friends, who looked away knowingly. The hand he was dealt in life wasn't exactly the best, but it could have been a hundred times worse.

He paused, before raising his hand in the air, continuing in a soft voice. Both Dumbledore and Voldemort showed how much more effective it was than shouting. "I'm going to reach the hundredth floor! I'm going to clear the game! If I die, then it is no one's fault but my own! Don't any of you dare imply anyone else would be to blame for my death!"

Kibaou frowned, "Wait, you're that bastard who laughed at the announcement!"

"No, that was my friend." He corrected, pointing. He looked around, "I find it thrilling when my life is on the line. I make no apologies for that. It's just the way I am. Will you say I owe anything to the dead because my personality is disagreeable?" he asked, raising an eyebrow mockingly.

Kibaou trembled angrily.

"Hey, do you mind if I say something?" Everyone looked over at the man who spoke. He got to his feet, revealing a tall guy with dark skin.

"I won't say anything about this guy's personality, but I'd like to interject on the beta testers point." He materialised an item, "You all got one of these guidebooks right? They were handed out by those beta testers you were blaming." He looked around, at the crowd. "Everyone had access to the same information. What more do you think the betas should have done? I won't lie; when this first happened, my thought was about how I would survive. I bet many of you are the same. It doesn't make a difference whether any of us were beta players or not. I'm not here to point fingers, or lay blame. I'm here to find out about the boss, and how we're going to beat it, hopefully with minimal casualties."

"An excellent point." Diabel inserted himself into the conversation, "Let's get back to that, and reconvene this boss raid meeting."

* * *

Harry sat, frowning after the other members had left the meeting.

"Hey, Harry."

"Yeah Ron?"

"Why did you accept the job of fighting the minions rather than the boss?"

Harry looked over at him, as well as the rest of the party. "While it would have been better to try and get the right to attack the boss directly, I figured it would be better to see how this sort of thing is done in games. I mean, it's our first game. We have no idea how to fight with other parties." He shrugged, "Plus, I didn't want to make a fuss after I made a scene earlier."

"But I wanna fight the boss!" Ron practically whined.

"I'm okay with it." Dudley admitted with a shrug, "It's a safer option."

"He did make a good point, it's a great opportunity to gather information on good ways to play from experienced gamers." Hermione grudgingly admitted.

Harry smirked, "Besides, when have I ever been that lucky? I bet our party will defeat the boss."

Ron paused as he was about to say something, "How much?"

Harry's smirk widened, "how about, ten thousand Col, vs that anneal blade of yours?"

He shook his head, "No way, ten thousand Col is fair, but the sword is mine, fair and square."

"Fine, ten thousand Col. Hermione?"

She sighed, "Ugh, fine, witnessed." She said formally.

Harry reached a fist out, knocking it against Ron's. "Bet's on."

"You have an anneal blade too?" Kirito asked.

Ron grinned, "Hell yeah, you should have seen Harry's face when he found out I got one and he didn't!"

"But you wanted to use an axe!" Harry complained.

"Until I got this awesome sword." Ron beamed.

Dudley shook his head with a bemused grin. "Anyway, we're probably going to go have a meal before we read the boss guide and discuss tomorrow. Kirito, Asuna, you guys want to join us?"

"How do you know my name?" the girl, Asuna asked.

"It's up there." Kirito explained, "Below your hp bar, your party member's bars and names should be there."

"Oh yeah… Kirito, Griffin, Weasel, Kittycat and Piggy."

Everyone aside from Harry and Kirito grimaced. "Please call me Hermione. The large guy is Dudley, and this ones Ron." Hermione explained. Seeing Asuna's look, she elaborated, "Harry, that's Grifffin, picked those names as a joke for us. We don't really like them. Or know why he chose them."

Harry groaned, "Come on, Griffin could have been any of us three, Weasel was so obvious even Malfoy thought of it, Kittycat because I'm sure you remember second year," Hermione blushed at the reminder, "And Piggy, well, sorry Dudley, but as a kid, I always thought of you as pig-in-a-wig."

Dudley grimaced, "It kind of pisses me off I can't refute that." He muttered.

"Moving on from that," Hermione forcefully advanced the conversation, "Where would we have that meeting? The private rooms at the inns are too small to comfortably do that."

Everyone exchanged glances, "Then rent somewhere that isn't an inn." Kirito suggested. They turned to look at him, causing him to rub his head sheepishly, "for example, I'm staying at the second floor of a farm. Unlimited milk, decent view, and a bathroom,"

He was cut off as Ausna grabbed hold of his collar, "D-did you say bathroom?"

"Er, yes?"

"…let me go to where you live, and lend me your bathroom." She muttered. Everyone exchanged glances, it seemed that was decided.

* * *

Almost immediately after entering Kirito's room, Asuna moved into the room with the small plaque 'Bathroom'.

This left the other five occupants of the room looking around awkwardly. There was a sofa, but other than that there weren't that many places to sit. Ignoring the awkward feeling in the room, Harry walked over and sat against the wall, Ron and Hermione, after a shared glance, joining him.

Dudley walked over and leaned against the wall Seeing everyone seated, Kirito gathered several glasses of milk, handing them to each player before sitting on the sofa.

"This is pretty good." Ron said happily.

Harry and Hermione shared a glance, give Ron something tasty and he was happy. Typical. They shared a smile.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, drinking their milk and waiting for Asuna to finish her bath, until there was a knocking at the door, causing Kirito to stiffen, looking around at his guests. Harry gestured that he should answer it, causing him to get up and walk to the door.

After opening the door, "How rare, for you to visit my room."

The guest dashed in, seating herself on the sofa that Kirito had just vacated. "Oh, I think it's rarer for Ki-bou to have guests." She said, gesturing to the other assembled people.

"Strategy meeting." He answered.

"Well, I suppose it's time to get to the main topic." She said, before looking at the other people there. Kirito followed her gaze before responding.

"It's fine, go ahead."

"The clients making an offer for thirty-nine thousand, eight hundred col."

"Isn't that some kind of scam? The market price for an anneal blade is about fifteen K right? Even with the enhancements, wouldn't it be cheaper to just get like that and enhance it?"

"I've told the client that several times, I don't understand what they're thinking." Argo admitted.

There was a moment of silence, before Ron broke it, "In that case, rather than 'wanting Kirito's sword', wouldn't it be a case of 'not wanting Kirito to have the sword'?"

Everyone stared at him, causing his cheeks to redden, "What?"

"So you can say sensible things?!" Harry said, with a tone of faux-amazement.

"Shove off." Ron muttered, scratching at his nose in embarrassment.

"I'll pay the fifteen hundred for the name of the client." Kirito said coolly.

Argo manipulated the menus for a moment. "Okay.

Kirito produced the several coins that amounted to the agreed upon amount, handing them over.

"It was the guy that spoke rudely at the meeting." She informed him.

"That guy, was it, Kibaou?"

"Yeah."

Kirito stood, frowning as he thought it over.

"I don't know about SAO," Dudley said, "But in other games I've played, the bosses drop rare items. Could this be about trying to get that item from the boss?"

Argo looked thoughtful, "Could be, I suppose."

"You're the information guide, Argo, right?" Hermione spoke up.

"Yeah, that's right." She said with a grin.

She manipulated the menu's. "In that case, I hope we can get along. Information may be the most important thing in being able to clear this game."

"Oh?" the whiskered girl looked at her quizzically, "So you understand my greatness?"

Hermione nodded, with a smile, "Yes, so with that, please join my friend list."

After manipulating her menu a bit more, Argo turned to Kirito, "Well then, the client has revoked the offer, so I'll be leaving now."

Catching her look, Kirito escorted her to the door.

"Ki-bou, keep in mind, I'm willing to pay for information on those guys." Before he could say anything, she shook her head, "we can talk about it later, just keep it in mind."

With that said, she took off, leaving a thoughtful Kirito on his doorstep.

* * *

Harry, Hermione, Ron and Dudley were walking back to the place they had rented.

"Hey Harry."

"Yeah."

"We should rent a place like that on the next floor. More space, better food. It'd be good."

"I suppose." Harry conceded without thought.

"We should work on casting the reviving charm." Hermione suddenly spoke up.

Harry's eyebrows shot up in confusion, "Rennervate? Why?"

Hermione turned to face them, "In SAO, we don't get tired, but battling increases mental fatigue. As I'm sure you know, the reviving charm can be used to remove mental fatigue, you know, for those last minute all night revision sessions you think I don't know about."

Harry and Ron winced, before responding as one "We have no idea what you're talking about."

She snorted, "Anyway, if we can cast that to remove our mental fatigue, we won't have to sleep at all. The dangers in real life is it makes us ignore our body's needs, but that isn't an issue here."

"Well, I suppose you're right. I figured you were going to clear us for apparition." Ron mumbled.

She shook her head, "What, so you can go challenge the last boss? Don't be absurd, this is a virtual reality, run by numbers. Our numbers are too small; we'd be pixels instantly."

"Hermione's right." Dudley agreed, "In some games, some bosses have a weak AoE that hits everything, for low damage. If your level is too low, it will kill you, with no chance of evading. It's too risky."

"The pros outweigh the cons." Harry countered, "Even putting that aside, if we _can_ do it, we could dodge fatal attacks. It's a good safety net."

Hermione frowned, "Well, I suppose splinching yourself here wouldn't matter. After the boss fight, we'll try it out. But only if you promise not to do anything stupid like jump to the last level."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, grins on their face, "We won't jump to the last floor." They agreed as one.

Hermione huffed, "Why does that not reassure me."

* * *

Harry closed his eyes. They'd gotten back to their inn, and gone to bed. Thankfully, Dudley's avatar didn't snore, for which he was grateful, though not nearly as grateful as Hermione must be about Ron.

Ever since the forest, with Voldemort, he'd felt a gentle tugging on his mind. Wanting to go to sleep, he let himself stop resisting, as he had many times before.

There was a moment of darkness, before…

"Back again Harry?" Came the gentle voice of an old man.

He opened his eyes, seeing the familiar soft glowing white of a metaphorical King's Cross station. "Hello Professor."


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N. I left what I thought was a pretty good hook at the end of the chapter, and no one commented on it, or on any of my questions. A little disappointing. Ah well, onwards we go.**

* * *

As agreed upon, they met up with Asuna and Kirito early the next morning. They had equipped their best gear, and enhanced it as much as was reasonably possible. Asuna was still wearing the ragged cloak on top of her armour, with a fresh rapier at her side, different from the basic iron rapier she had been using. Kirito was still using his anneal blade. Harry grimaced at the fact that he knew two people that had the sword, yet he didn't. That was pretty bad luck, especially since, so far as he was aware, there were currently only a handful in the game.

No words were spoken as they exchanged nods of greetings. The air, after meeting up with them, was suddenly much tenser. No doubt the danger of the boss fight hanging over their heads made them nervous. They were fairly young, Harry thought, fourth years by his estimate. He supposed he should pay extra care to making sure they didn't get killed. He hadn't really tried to save anyone, and he didn't really feel guilty about that, but he wasn't the sort of person that could happily accept someone dying in front of him.

Without any words spoken, they turned, starting the journey for the boss raids meeting place. Of course, someone wasn't able to walk in silence.

"Hey Harry."

His lips twitched in amusement. "Yeah Ron?"

"It's been what, a month? At this rate, it'll take about eight years to complete the game."

"Eight years, four months." Hermione automatically corrected idly.

"Right." Ron agreed, trusting her math without a thought.

"Yeah?"

"Don't get me wrong, it's been fun, but, I don't wanna spend eight years here."

Harry considered for a moment. "We won't."

Ron thought about it. "Yeah, I suppose we should get faster at this."

The resulting silence was cut off by their other female companion, "Did you say this was fun?" she asked darkly.

Ron blinked. "Yeah, real fun. We never saw anything like this before."

"You know we have lives that are being wasted here?!"

Harry cut in, "Now, now, let's not fight before the important battle. What he means is, while we're trapped, there's no reason to be miserable while we're here."

The girl looked away in a huff. Harry rolled his eyes, she clearly wasn't convinced.

* * *

"Harry."

"Yeah?"

"This is boring." Ron complained.

"Yeah." Harry agreed.

A single Ruin Kobold Sentinel, which was all they'd had to fight, really wasn't that tough of an opponent, and they hadn't taken long to finish it off. The other groups hadn't let any others slip through.

He glanced over at the two players that had joined the party, Asuna and Kirito. He couldn't say for sure, but they both seemed like strong players. Asuna's rapier skill was fast, fast enough that he almost lost track of the blade when she used her skills, and Kirito was all round pretty good, good enough at everything that nothing really stood out. Well, he hadn't had much time to really observe them.

"I wanna fight the boss." Ron complained.

"Yeah, though it's less intimidating than a troll." Harry agreed, causing both Ron and Hermione to snort in amusement.

Kirito was speaking to the loudmouth player, Kibaou, from the day before, though they were far enough off that he couldn't hear what they were saying. Well, it wasn't any of his business.

"You know that feeling I sometimes get." Harry said abruptly.

Hermione arched a brow, "the one predicting trouble?"

"Yeah." Harry agreed, "It's returning with a vengeance."

"Really?" Ron said eagerly, practically dripping with excitement at the prospect of something worthwhile.

Harry nodded, returning his gaze to the other players. They were switching out parties near the boss, if one group of players received enough damage, being moved away and replaced, as well as clearly having parties designed to both take and inflict damage. It was pretty interesting. Well, Harry had no interest in leading enough people to care about such tactics. He glanced over at Ron. Maybe he would like to think about it.

"Hey Ron, what do you think of the tactics here?"

The change over his friend was instant. "It's good. Rotating parties like that is a good way to prevent sufficient damage to kill any players, but also serves as a way to limit mental fatigue. Having parties that specialise in withstanding damage, and others for inflicting it, it's simple, but at the same time a complexity on a different level than chess. Well, I doubt many chess games are played with the player's life on the line. As more skills open up, I imagine the roles will be less interchangeable as the difference in player abilities become much more varied."

As he spoke, the leaders HP dropped into the its last bar. It jumped away from the parties currently engaging it with a loud roar. It flung aside it's shield and axe, drawing the blade sheathed behind it.

Kirito and Asuna moved to confront the Kobold sentinel that approached them, they could handle it, but Harry gestured for Hermione and Dudley to join them before turning his attention back to the boss.

Diabel, the player who called the raid together shouted something, moving forward to engage it with his party for the second time since the encounter began.

"Stop, that's not a Talwar!" Kirito shouted from nearby.

Harry exchanged a glance with Ron, before shooting forward.

The boss jumped into the air, it's muscles clearly not just for sure. As it fell, it's sword glowed with its technique. Ignoring it, Harry advanced as quickly as he could, Ron barely a step behind.

The boss landed on the floor, emitting a red flash, as the players who surrounded it were knocked back a step and seemed to completely stop.

 _The stun effect?_ Harry wondered. Glancing to the side, the groups average HP had fallen into the yellow zone. That wasn't good.

The boss paused for a second, before it sprang forward, targeting Diabel. Its glowing sword swung out, knocking the player into the air, before jumping after him.

Harry grit his teeth, even if he was close enough, he doubted he could jump that. The Kobold Lords weapon flashed out three more times, the final strike blowing Diabel back the way Harry had charged from.

Harry raised his sword in the required way his curved sword skill, shooting forward the remaining distance to strike the boss as it was landing. A moment later Ron's sword lanced into the boss, pushing it back a few inches. At this time, Harry was out of the after skill pause and immediately launched his next skill.

As the skill hit the Kobold, the boss's weapon flashed out, slamming into Harry, who was unable to dodge. He winced as his HP was immediately dropped deeply into the yellow. It would probably be best not to get hit again. On the other hand, the boss's HP had only decreased by a tiny amount. He grimaced, this might be harder than he'd thought.

He jumped back, eyeing the boss. The sword it was using appeared to be some kind of Japanese katana, and he had no idea about the skills it could use, not having recognised the skills it had already used.

"Ron." He muttered.

"Got it." Ron affirmed beside him. The exchange was brief, but it was all they needed.

Harry rushed forward, shifting his arm into the pose for activating a skill. As expected, the boss moved to activate his own skill. As the katana swung at him, Ron rushed in front, bashing into the sword with his shield. Harry stepped around his friend, launching his skill with as much power as he could, rewarded with a tiny sliver being removed from its health bar.

Harry barely stopped moving even as the after skill pause kicked in, and he kicked off as soon as he could, preparing to launch his next skill, trusting Ron to block any counter attempt. As the boss appeared to be preparing its skill, a familiar form slammed into it, with a yell. The boss's sword went wide, and a gleaming rapier thrust into its throat, knocking off another sliver of health.

"I know its techniques, please listen to me!" Kirito called out, as Dudley's familiar form slammed his two handed weapon into the boss.

"All right, please advise." Harry acknowledged.

"Fall back and use a HP potion, come back when your health is nearly full."

"Don't think that'll be possible." Harry replied, tensing as the boss ignored everyone else to attack him, lunging at him past Dudley.

Ron jumped in the way, blocking its skill.

"This isn't right; it should switch it's aggro to someone else." Kirito muttered, "all right, let's just do it!"

Harry manipulated his menu to take the HP potion, but it would take a while to fully heal him. None the less, he rushed forward with a grin on his face.

* * *

It was a hard fight. Well, more mentally than physically. It was kind of good that there was no physical pain after receiving an attack like he had, that would likely have interfered with his ability for the rest of the fight.

Nonetheless, it was a fight hard won, and thankfully with no further casualties. As the message congratulating the players on their victory, a slow, but steadily increasing round of cheers and happiness erupted.

Harry grinned, the after party was almost as sweet as the victory itself, at least that hadn't changed from quidditch matches. Now if only he could get his hands on some firewhiskey…

He reached out to the side, extending his fist. A moment later it was bumped by Ron. His health had decreased into the yellow, in spite of his skill at blocking. Harry looked over exchanging a grin. "Thanks for having my back."

"You know it." Ron replied.

Harry smirked at him, "Pay up."

His best mate chuckled, "Yeah yeah." He said, manipulating his menu.

Accepting the proposed trade, Harry looked around, spotting Kirito among the players who had walked over in the aftermath of the victory. In addition to his party, there was the black guy, Agil was it, and a few others he didn't recognise. He nodded to them, walking over to where Kirito was hunched over after dealing the last blow.

"Kirito, good work." He said, offering his hand to the boy.

He turned to look at him, before grasping the offered hand. Harry pulled him to his feet. "If it's like this, then we might be able to clear this game." Harry said with a smile.

Kirito smiled weakly back, opening his mouth to respond, but he was cut off.

"-Why!" came a shout.

Harry quickly looked over, seeing one of the members of Diabel's party, though he didn't know a name, in light armour and wielding a scimitar.

"Why did you let Diabel die!"

"let Diabel die?" Kirito muttered, confused.

"That's right! You knew the boss's skills, if you'd told us, Diabel wouldn't have died!" the player shouted. Harry looked past him, to the rest of his party. They all looked depressed, some even had tears in their eyes.

His words had an effect on the rest of the gathered people, the jubilant atmosphere replaced by a much more sullen one, one Harry was familiar with, people seeking someone to blame. He grimaced, he wasn't sure how to deal with it. He thought to the people with the largest impact on his life. Dumbledore would bamboozle everyone with words, before using their confusion to trick them into believing vague philosophical statements that had them doing what he wanted. Unfortunately, Harry didn't think he could pull that off.

What about Voldemort? Harry pictured himself acting like the dark lord. Strike the person down, make everyone terrified of him and do as he says. Yeah, not an option he could do, even if by some chance it would work. He grimaced. Wing it, like always.

"Harry." Hermione muttered from next to him.

He smiled at her wryly "You know I can't let this go." He whispered back. He raised his sword, activating a rush skill, the blade stopping within inches of the speaker's head.

Silence fell as everyone was shocked by the action. Harry hoped this was a good sign.

"I know you're upset, I know what it's like to lose someone, the desire to lash out at those responsible. But it isn't Kirito's fault." He said. He didn't raise his voice, that was a lesson well learned.

"It is!" the person insisted, "If he'd shared his knowledge"

"It would have made little difference, if not worsening the situation." Harry cut him off.

"Wha-"

The guide said the boss used a Talwar. I'm not an expert, but that wasn't a Talwar."

"He's right." Hermione spoke as she began walking over, "A talwar is a curved saber, popularised in India during-"

"Yes, thank you." Harry cut her off, "It was clearly some kind of Katana, sorry, but I'm not really an expert, and it used unfamiliar skills." He looked around at the players, "I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be able to respond to skills just by reading about them. Trying to do so would just have made me more likely to screw up against skills I did recognise."

Seeing his opponent start to speak, Harry quickly continued, "And we all saw the guide, the information came from the beta, it was always possible some things were changed to rid the beta testers of any advantage they had, you should be thanking Kayaba for listening to your complaints." He said dryly.

He looked around again, "Listen closely, I'm not expecting anyone to let go of a grudge so easily, the heart doesn't obey the mind. But think about this, why did Diabel gather us here today? It wasn't something trivial like defeating the boss, he wanted to give hope to the players despairing below us, to show them we can work together to clear the game. What do you think will happen if we let fear and mistrust start a witch hunt? Progress forward will be stilled, delayed for weeks, if not months, if another attempt can even be attempted." He looked around, giving them a moment to consider his words.

"This is bigger than Diabel, bigger than beta testers, bigger than anyone here. We need to keep moving forward, clear the next level, and the one after. We're going to go to the next floor, and we're going to celebrate and cheer. Even if it hurts, _that_ is the legacy Diabel will leave, in all our hearts, in the hearts of all the players. You knew him longer than me, but even I can tell, he would want to leave a legacy of hope, rather than one of despair."

He gave them another moment, "Diabel's will is carried by all of us, and any who join us. When we challenge the next boss, I won't turn anyone away because of personal feelings. What we're doing is something too great to be tarnished with such a thing."

He reached with his hand, opening his menu. A moment later a message pinged in everyone's inbox.

"Everyone here, you," he pointed to the person he was primarily speaking too, "them," he pointed at his friends, "and even that guy whom I'm sure you know I disagreed with in the past" he gestured at Kibaou, "This is a war against this entire world, and we are the frontline. You're all important comrades, so I hope you'll accept my friend request. Now," he span in place, walking towards the steps, "Let's get a move on. We can hold a memorial for our fallen comrade later, for now we have to do the task he set us."

The moment he was out of sight, he stopped, waiting for his friends, who appeared almost instantly.

"Do you think it worked?" He asked.

They glanced at each other, before shrugging. "Hope so." Ron replied.

There was a pinging noise, glancing at his menu he saw that dozens of players accepted his friend request. He heaved a sigh of relief, "Thank God." He muttered.

He saw Kirito and Asuna appear, followed by the tall guy, Agil. "Hey, that nearly went bad." Harry greeted.

"Yeah." Kirito muttered, "Thanks, it would have been bad if all the beta players had become targeted."

Harry nodded, "Trust me, I wouldn't wish that sort of unpopular discrimination on anyone."

Kirito nodded.

"So," Dudley asked, "You got the last attack?"

"Huh, oh yeah."

"What d'you get?" He asked.

Kirito pressed some invisible buttons. The armour and clothes covering his torso vanished for a moment, eliciting a squeak type sound from Asuna, and was replaced by a flowing black coat.

"Damn," Harry whistled, "That's nice. I'm a little jealous. Anyway, let's get a move on. Don't want to ruin the impression I left."

After a round of assenting sounds, they made their way onto the second floor.

"Hey, Griffin, would you mind holding up for a second?" Agil asked.

"Sure, err, Agil right?"

"Yeah." The man chuckled. Harry gestured for the rest to go on.

"What is it?"

"That was a nice speech. But I must say I'm surprised. I didn't expect to see Harry Potter here." He said.

Harry glanced over at him, "Not as surprised as I am to be recognised. You're a wizard?"

Agil chuckled, "Naw, nothing like that. I'm all muggle. My wife's a witch though."

"Really? Must have been quite a shock."

"Yeah, you could say that."

"May I ask why you're mentioning this though? Talking about the outside seems to be taboo for some reason."

"You made the news, even in Japan. I know you magic types tend to shun technology, so I figured you and your pals would be forced to hide that aspect of yourselves. I thought you should know that I'm at least aware of it, so if you want company without having to worry about breaking that statute of secrecy, feel free to PM me."

Harry chuckled, "Thanks for the offer, I guess."

"Don't mention it. Least I can do for a 'hero'."

Harry got the impression that a reference was being made that was going over his head, rather than actually calling him a hero due to the Voldemort mess. "Do you know if any others like me and my friends are in the game?" he asked, ignoring the irritating feeling.

"Can't say I do. I can keep an ear open, though I wouldn't expect to find anything."

"Just curious really." Harry responded, "Anyway, we should catch up with the others."

* * *

Diabel's eyes shot open. He had died. If that were the case, then if Kayaba's words had been true, he should have immediately been killed in real life as well. He glanced around, he certainly didn't recognise where he was. He'd have thought he'd have been in a hospital bed, but it appeared that he was in some kind of train station, though one he was unfamiliar with.

"Damn, {Katana skills}, was it." He muttered ruefully. He recognised them from the final floor reached in the beta. He'd gotten careless. "I hope Kirito managed to defeat the boss." He continued speaking, the silence somehow seeming to create a fear effect in him. He'd been too eager for the Last Attack, and trying to make sure Kirito didn't get it. Receiving a powerful item would have increased his, and by extension his parties chance of survival by a decent margin.

He looked around, no point just standing around. He began walking, rather aimlessly since there didn't seem to be a map. After a short time walking, he seemed to appear in front of a table. There were three, figures, sitting around it, with an empty chair nearest him. He said 'figures' since, while there were two humans, one old man with {ridiculous clothes} equipped, and another he somewhat recognised, the third figure was a large mangy looking dog perched on the chair, with what appeared to be a party hat strapped to its head.

He took a closer look at the second figure, the one he thought he recognised, who was calmly drinking from a cup, "Griffin, right?" he asked, placing the player who had confronted Kibaou.

The man looked at him, inclining his head. He looked tired, was Diabel's first thought, not at all like the vibrant person he'd seen the day before.

"Where are we?" He asked, looking around again. Aside from the people, the only thing that wasn't the painfully bright white, was an old fashioned scarlet steam engine.

"Where?" Griffin wondered, "Where indeed. I suppose one could say, that on the path to the afterlife, this is the final bathroom break." He said at last.

It took a moment, but an icy feeling appeared in Diabel's stomach, "To be clear, I'm dead then?"

Griffin nodded, "Yes. It seems Akihiko Kayaba wasn't bluffing when he said death in Aincrad meant death in real life."

"Damn." Diabel smiled sadly, "I was kinda hoping it was a bluff."

"No such luck I'm afraid." The dog said. Diabel looked at it in shock. "What, never seen a talking hound before?" it confronted him.

"Down Padfoot." Griffin smiled ruefully, "Muggle, remember, and even we don't really have talking dogs, you were just playing with ventriloquism charms."

"So, who are you? Are you dead?" Diabel asked, rallying his thoughts.

"Me? I died. A while back. Who can say what I am now?" Griffin shrugged as he answered.

Diabel frowned, "You seem rather unconcerned."

The old man chuckled, "Why worry about what cannot be changed? Simply enjoy what you can, while you can. Troubled times will always appear when we would rather they would not."

"Well, this is your fault Dumbledore." Griffin pointed out.

The old man reddened slightly, "Perhaps. I shall concede the point. In my defence, we have no idea what has happened, so knowing what might happen would certainly have been impossible."

Diabel was losing track of the conversation, he needed to turn it back a bit, "So does everyone who dies come here?" he asked.

Griffin shook his head, "Truthfully, I think you're here because I wanted to speak to you."

Diabel frowned, that was ominous, and incredibly confusing. "What about?" he asked instead.

"Your death caused quite a bit of trouble, you know. My party defeated the boss, but Kirito's knowledge almost started a witch hunt against beta testers."

Diabel winced, that wasn't what he wanted at all. The old man snorted at something he found amusing in what the young man said, but Griffin carried on.

"I somehow managed to smooth things over, talking about your 'legacy' being one of hope, or some such nonsense. I'll probably see if Hermione can make a banner, something trite like 'In honour of the knight Diabel, who forged the front line'."

There was a moment of silence, "What was it you wanted to talk about?" Diabel repeated.

Griffin smiled, "Nothing in particular. You're the first player I've seen die, I wanted to see if people were really dying. Plus, I suppose I wanted you to know that your death nearly crippled the cause you championed, as well as nearly caused that kid, Kirito to become the target of about forty players anger."

Diabel winced, "I never meant for that to happen."

The old man chuckled, "Words that are said by every person to have lived, at some point, I would wager."

"Do you have any advice? About clearing the game?" Griffin asked.

Diabel paused, "You need to try and get more players working on clearing dungeons and bosses. Too many though, and they'll get in each other's way when levelling. It's a balance you need to find."

Griffin nodded, "Anything else?"

Diabel paused to think, "You need to get the other players doing something, boredom is something that can drive them crazy. I don't really have any ideas for that though."

"I see." Griffin muttered, looking thoughtful.

There was another moment of silence, "What next?" Diabel asked.

Griffin stared at him, "This is a train station, and a metaphor for passing on. I would have thought the answer obvious." He answered, gesturing at the train.

"So I board the train?" Diabel confirmed.

Griffin nodded, getting up from the table and walking over to it, following Diabel. "That's right. Board the train, and depart for the afterlife. Nice and simple."

The door opened as Diabel approached, "I suppose this is goodbye then."

Griffin nodded. "See ya." Diabel turned and walked into the carriage.

* * *

Harry watched as the player known as Diabel vanished into the carriage. He reached out, into the open doorway. As his fingers reached the open doorway, there was a painful stinging sensation as an ethereal crimson barrier formed, barring him entry. He pulled his hand back, looking at the blackened fingertips, even as they swiftly began to heal.

"Would it help if I apologised?" Albus said from behind him.

Harry shook his head, "Like you said, we have no idea what happened even now, expecting you to know back then? I won't blame you for this. Whatever this is."

Silence fell over them. Sirius nosed at his hand, causing him to begin stroking the dog's head.

"Go. I'll be fine. Your friends are waiting for you."

"Harry." Sirius voice came, laden with sadness.

"Go." He repeated, smiling sadly. "You've earned your rest on the other side. I have to get back to Ron and Hermione anyway."

Sirius and the headmaster disappeared with a soft pop, leaving Harry alone in the painfully white station. Moments later, that fell apart, and Harry awoke back in his digital avatar.

* * *

 **A.N. so, no one gave an opinion on many of my questions, so the status quo won, Diabel must die. In all seriousness, had he survived, it would have had a large amount of effects, probably, like the front line being almost completely unified. Or something. It's probably better this way.**

 **That said, I have a few ideas for the next floor, but after that? It would have to be pretty much 100% original, which is too troublesome to think about, which brings me back to the snippet like thing I mentioned a while back. As such, after floor 2 gets cleared, this'll probably go the route of the SAO anime, that is to say, '20/30 floors later' with some brief, (hopefully) funny (others less so), extracts.**

 **On Agil, at the end. It seemed kind of forced, especially given the 'real life taboo' thing but I had the idea about him being married to a witch, and recognising Harry and mentioning it, and wanted to run with it.**

 **As such, I'll ask again, any scenes you want to see? A Dudley Asuna cook off? Hermione v Lisbeth smithing challenge? Any scenes back in the real world? I have a bunch of ideas, but seriously, lay some down.**


	6. Chapter 6

Hermione scowled at the one handed curved sword in front of her. Ninety-five percent. That was the chance of successfully increasing the sharpness parameter by one. She understood the base mechanism; a random number generator, different adjustments, based on the materials used, the current enhancement level, her one handed sword smithing skill, her blacksmiths hammer, probably a few others she hadn't identified yet.

She glared at the sword, as her hammer swung down.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

She was currently using a steady rhythm of beats, trying to creating a baseline so she could determine if altering the hit style changed her observed rate of success.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

She didn't think it would, else the 'ninety-five percent' would be a lie, nonetheless, she couldn't sleep easily until she had determined the answer.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Which brought her back to her original thought; the random number generator. Wizards and witches had an interesting relationship to luck, what with things like luck enhancing charms and potions, as well as the converse.

Clang.

A window popped up, enhancement failed, she read.

She tossed the sword aside in a huff.

The enhancement system was interesting, each weapon had a limited number of attempts, success or failure, and if they expired, then it could not be enhanced further.

The iron scimitar she had been enhancing had been bought in the starting city, perfect for experimenting on. It had thirty enhancement attempts. She had used all of them, using the maximum number of items to increase her chance of success to ninety-five. It was still just an iron scimitar, +0.

Dudley snorted beside her, causing her glower to land on him. He held up his hands in mock surrender. She sighed, her eyes falling to the sword in front of him. Iron Scimitar, +6. Or rather, +6S declaring that it had six successful increases to its sharpness parameter.

He had only made six attempts, and had managed them all. Enhancing it further would take up more materials than she could justify for the sake of experimentation. She'd already blown through a large amount of the stockpile they'd gathered.

It confirmed one thing; she was unlucky when it came to the random number generator. It was highly implausible that something like that was possible, but she _was_ a witch, it wasn't impossible that 'luck' trumped the RNG.

The door to the room swung open, "We've returned." Ron announced, Harry following him in with a dark look on his face.

Ron and Hermione shared a look. Ron was beaming, Harry was glowering. She sighed, "What is it Harry?" she asked resignedly.

"It's nothing." He spat out.

She looked at Ron, who broke into a laugh.

"He's got a nickname." Ron shared, way too happy, "Somehow every player we've met knows it. They're all calling him 'Captain."

"It's bloody annoying!" Harry ranted, "I've had eight, Eight! Players come up to me, asking me where they should explore! One or two, I remember seeing at the boss fight! They should know more or less what to do on their own! I didn't want to become some kind of leader!"

Hermione couldn't help it, she laughed. Seeing Harry's betrayed look, she managed to compose herself, "It isn't that surprising Harry." She explained, "Everyone is concerned about dying, being part of a group offers a better chance of survival. Being part of 'the frontline' gives the illusion of being part of a massive group, and a higher chance of surviving. Although," she mused, "I would have expected that they would try and find quests on their own."

"You were rather convincing Harry." Dudley said. Harry turned to face him, "and the vibe you gave off in the boss room, you felt like," Dudley paused, struggling to find the words, "you felt like a protagonist," Dudley explained, "Like you're going to get out of here, and being near you will increase their odds."

The magical's all stared at him. He blushed, scratching at his cheek, "given we grew up together, I was really surprised, to be honest."

Harry's head fell forward, sighing, "Well, it is what it is." He moved his hand, operating his menu.

A beep came from in front of Hermione, and she examined the popped up window, before clicking on 'accept trade'.

Like that, all of Harry's loot was added to her inventory, and a quick trade later, Ron's joined it.

"Before we go off, I'd like for you to enhance my sword." Harry said, drawing his Iron Shamshir. It wasn't from any shop; he'd found it in a chest in the first floor labyrinth. In term of stats, it wasn't as good as Ron's Anneal Blade, but it was better than anything he could buy thus far, and was in a different weapon category.

"I'm, not sure that's the best idea Harry." She hedged.

"Nonsense." Harry dismissed, "It'll work." He said, absolutely sure.

Hermione stared for a moment, before relenting. She looked at the new window that had popped up; chance of success, sixty percent.

She swung her hammer down.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.

She grimaced. The shamshir was already +2S2Q, a bonus of two to its sharpness and quickness stat. this would, if it worked, increase its sharpness to +3.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.

She stared in shock at the pop up, enhancement successful.

"Thanks Hermione." Harry said with a grin, "Anyway, See ya later."

"Yeah, see you." She muttered.

She focused on her thoughts as Ron and Harry left.

"Penny for your thoughts." Dudley said.

She blinked, "Wha- Oh. I was thinking. I wanted to test the failure rate, Harry was sure I would succeed, I was wondering if our thoughts influenced the outcome."

Dudley tilted his head, "Would that be possible?" He wondered.

Hermione grinned weakly, "For a witch?"

She manipulated her menu, equipping another iron scimitar. She had some more experimenting to do.

* * *

"So, got anywhere planned for our next foray?" Ron asked.

Harry nodded, "That's right. I noticed something odd."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, you remember that kid, Kirito?"

"Dude with an awesome coat?"

"That's right. Damn, I want a coat like that." Harry muttered, "He accepted my friend request back then," Harry opened his menu, navigated to the friend list and clicked on show location, before making his menu visible to others, "He's been in that exact spot since at least yesterday." Harry explained, "It's probably fine, but I'll admit I'm curious."

"You could just message him." Ron pointed out.

Harry grinned, "True, but it's more fun this way. Plus, we get to explore more this way."

Ron shrugged. "I suppose."

Harry clicked on the dismiss menu button, sending the projection away.

They walked along in silence for a moment.

"Hey! Captain!"

Harry winced. before turning to face the voice. "…Kibaou, right?"

"Yeah." The loud man answered, "I just wanted you to know, I'm going to try and clear this game in my own way!"

The man was surrounded by several other players, all dressed in the similar green outfits.

"Oh? That's good." Harry said with a smile. "Everyone should do things in their own way."

Kibaou rubbed at the back of his head, "Yeah, well, we'll be ready for when the next boss is found, so you better not waste your own time." He muttered, before turning to walk off.

After he was gone Harry groaned. "How did I end up in this position." He complained to no one.

"You tried to head off the hate against beta testers. Whatever those are."

Harry shot a look at his best mate, "Ask Hermione. Or Kirito, when we get there." With that said, he turned, and walked towards the edge of town.

* * *

Arthur Weasley was a simple man. Not in the sense of a simpleton, but rather he believed in simple things; being a good man, being a good father, being a good husband. He lived his life while trying to avoid causing anyone to be hurt, physically, or emotionally.

Of course, there were exceptions. Like the stereotypical redhead, he had a bit of a temper, though it was slow to boil, and had only been released on a few occasions. He liked to think, at least to himself, that he'd left one hell of a shiner on Lucius Malfoy several years back, and that the git was too proud to get a wound he'd caused healed.

Many would consider him an odd man, at least among wizards. He was absolutely fascinated by muggles. He truly wished he'd taken Muggle Studies when he'd been in Hogwarts; his fascination hadn't kicked in until he was in fifth year and he'd seen muggle devices that had been brought to Diagon Alley.

He'd hoped, when he'd taken the post in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office, that he'd get a chance to talk to muggles in his official capacity, unfortunately, his role was more to take maliciously charmed objects away from where muggles might stumble across them.

Nonetheless, he loved his job. Seeing the things muggles had, he tried desperately to figure them out, how the charms on them worked, how to charm them himself. He was proud of the fact that the ministry came to him when it came to charming the fleet of cars they possessed.

Indeed, it may have been a little arrogant, but he liked to think he was a leading expert when it came to charming muggle artefacts.

He looked down at the comatose form of his son, the girl his son loved, of the man that may as well have been his son, and the muggle cousin of said boy.

His wife was distraught, constantly wondering if he was eating alright. His sons had their own opinions, but they were definitely worried. He recalled the speech Percy had practically ranted at the minister until he was blue in the face about attempts to save Ron. His daughter, well, he wasn't sure how she felt, but he suspected that she was concerned, especially about Harry.

He was different. If he was honest, he was jealous. He'd only had a brief chat with Hermione, where she tried to explain this 'virtual reality' thing, and he found it completely fascinating. He wanted to poke it, prod it, charm it, see it. When Ron said he was playing the game, Arthur fully well intended to ask if he could borrow the device at some point to experience it for himself.

Then came the news; they wouldn't be able to leave until they cleared the game.

He was jealous. The nerve gear was expensive. Probably, he wasn't that good with muggle money. He likely wouldn't be able to buy one, and he was leery of using magic to duplicate one without really knowing what he was plugging himself into.

He reached down, clasping Ron's shoulder. Realistically, he knew it meant nothing, Ron was likely completely unable to feel anything from this end. But nonetheless, he liked to think that it let Ron, and the others know that they were thinking of them, that they were wishing them well.

"Ron." He said, "I know you can't hear me, but I hope you're having fun. I hope you're eating well, taking care. I know how reckless young lads like yourself can be." He smiled to himself. "But most of all, you have to make it back, I want to hear all about everything you're experiencing in there."

He tightened his grip on the lad's shoulder, despite knowing it was meaningless, he couldn't help it. It was simply a habit.

The lights flickered. His eyes widened, before he turned to face the new person in the room.

Or rather, he reflected, people.

"…Arthur." The unspeakable greeted.

Arthur broke into a grin, "Unspeakable Brown." He said, before pausing, "You said I should ask for the passphrase." He reminded.

It felt like the unspeakable was staring at him.

"… The muggle in Spain… got on the plane… to avoid the rain…" the unspeakable said.

Arthur beamed, "Wonderful. I was wondering when you might show up again. May I ask?" he gestured towards the second figure.

"…This is… also…"

"Unspeakable Brown." The second figure chirped. It was impossible to tell, but Arthur mentally selected female as the gender of the second figure.

"…Two." The first figure finished.

"Sooo, what can I do for you today?" he asked.

"…This is… actually a trainee… that shows… great promise at using magic on… muggle devices." The first Unspeakable Brown explained, "I was hoping… you'd share your… expertise." He finished.

Arther _beamed._ He loved sharing his passion with others. "Alright." He agreed instantly, "Now, the first thing you have to remember, is intense magic can make muggle 'Ekkeltrikity' go a bit, wonky. As you should know, the easiest way to get around this is to strip all the 'Ekkeltrikity' bits out, and use charms instead. However, this isn't always possible, especially if you want it to connect to other muggle devices, like 'Feletones'. In such a case, what you can do is" He happily began lecturing.

* * *

Unspeakable robes, by default, had ventriloquism charms in the hood, enabling them to speak to one another without their voices either being heard by others, or from interfering with their experiments, one reason for the name.

It was the former reason that was relevant here.

" _This_ is your expert?!" Unspeakable Brown two asked incredulously. The man's words were being recorded, and could be replayed later, though she was used to listening to multiple conversations.

There was no response.

"He can't even get 'electricity' right." They pointed out.

"My words were… an expert at… charming… muggle devices. He is… unrivalled… at that."

Unspeakable Brown two gave him a sharp glare, that went unseen.

"And rather than… muggle expert… I would say… enthusiast."

"You want me to trust my friends lives to information from this guy?"

"You… were the one… who asked for… this assignment… even as… a trainee. This is… the best source of… information on this… subject we have."

Unspeakable Brown two sighed, damn crystal ball. Well, they wanted to help them as much as they could. Better pay attention.

* * *

Once they were sure there was no one around, they swiftly apparated. To be fair, there was no way of knowing whether someone was watching their location on the map, so there was a chance that someone witnessed their sudden change in location. It was too useful to fall to such a concern though.

They didn't appear right next to Kirito, probably about a five-minute jog away.

"Ahh, I missed the feel of that." Ron said with a soft smile.

Harry glared at him, "It was highly unpleasant." He grimaced.

Ron shrugged, "So, when are we jumping to the ninety-ninth floor?" he asked.

Harry stared at him nonplussed.

"Well, we promised Hermione we wouldn't jump to the last floor, so what about the floor before the last?"

Harry chuckled, "Tut tut tut." He waggled his finger, "Think it through Ron. If we did that, Hermione would shout at us for using semantics to ignore her."

Ron pouted, "So we're not going to jump to a higher floor then?"

Harry actually laughed, "I never said that. Rather than jumping to the end game, I say we, at least at first, play it a little safe and do a small jump."

"So," Ron mused, "Floor three then?"

"Pft." Harry snorted, "Fuck that, I doubt it'd be much different from floor two. No, I say we jump," He paused for effect, "Floor seven." He said proudly.

Ron made an 'oohh' sound, "That does sound high enough to be interesting."

"I know, right?" Harry grinned. "Anyway, let's get a move on."

Ron smirked, "Sure thing, Captain."

"Screw you, 'Weasel'."

Ron winced, "All right, I'll stop using it, so don't call me that."

"That's better." Harry said.

When they finally found Kirito, well, they were surprised, since he seemed to be punching a rock.

"Oh my God, a Giant Rock!" Harry exclaimed.

Kirito span around.

"It's a Rock, and it's Giant!" Ron continued.

"Geh, I forgot I added you as a friend in the heat of the moment." Kirito muttered.

Harry blinked as he got a good look at Kirito's face. "Soo, Kiricat?"

Kirito winced as though he took damage. "It's a quest." He justified quickly.

Harry's eyebrows rose, "Really?"

"Yeah. It's" He paused, "I have to destroy this rock. Then I can get rid of the paint, and learn the Martial Art's skill." He explained.

Ron and Harry exchanged a glance. "We have to learn this skill." Ron stated, striking a pose from one of the movies Hermione had forced them to watch.

"Yeah," Harry agreed. It was a shame Ron wasn't making the 'hwaah' sound effects the way he used to, at least until Hermione shouted at him.

"So how long will it take?" Harry asked after a moment of silence.

Kirito looked hesitant, "I'm not sure. It's practically an Immortal Object, so probably a while."

"I see." Harry muttered. "So, can we get you anything?"

"Huh?"

"I noticed you'd been here an entire day, that's why we came to investigate. I don't think you can die from lack of food, but I figured you wouldn't carry that much on you."

Kirito shook his head, "A solo player like me keeps enough stuff to last a few days, I should be fine."

Harry shrugged. "You can get back to punching your Rock." He said, "We can stay and chat, or we can leave if you want."

He noticed Ron rubbing at his shoulder. "Something wrong?" He asked.

"Nah, nothing." Ron replied, "Just a tingle."

Harry dismissed it.

"You can stay a while." Kirito said, turning back to his opponent.

* * *

"He's a good kid." Ron said. They'd left Kirito after about an hour. He'd agreed to message them when he finished with his quest.

Harry shot him an askance glance, "He's not that much younger than us."

"There's more to maturity than age." Ron said idly.

Harry stared at him. If only he could be like that more often, well, he wouldn't be Ron if he was.

"I don't think any 'childhood' will last long in here." Harry replied.

"True." Ron agreed.

Harry opened his menu as they walked, navigating to his inventory.

"What you doing?" Ron asked curiously.

"Trying something out." Harry muttered. He unequipped the simple leather armour he was wearing, replacing it with a simple shirt he had bought on the first floor.

"You going to fight like that?" Ron asked, with a snort.

"Yeah. The light armour is kinda irritating, and heavy isn't my style. Plus, the light armour didn't seem very effective in the boss fight." Harry replied.

"We're not fighting bosses." Ron pointed out.

"True. Call it, a hunch."

Ron smirked, "One of those huh?"

Harry laughed, "Come on. Hermione will frown disapprovingly if we don't get a ton of loot for her to play with."

Ron rolled his eyes, "And that would be a tragedy."

* * *

 **A.N.**

 **An idea that was scrapped, because I got about five lines, before the scene stalled, was one where Harry had childhood trauma from wasps, and went on a wasp slaying rampage while cackling.**

 **I was forced to consider something while writing this. First was the issue of Dual Wielding, with Harry there, he would certainly receive it, which leaves me unsure what to do with Kirito. Was thinking the errors causing them both to get it. Well, that's a long way off.**

 **Second; Yui. She went crazy due to the overwhelming despair, and being unable to do anything about it, and was drawn to Kirito and Asuna's happiness. Only, there's another group of players that are pretty damn happy about, and from the beginning. She won't show up for quite a while, if she even does, but having her go to Asuna and Kirito with a justification of errors seems a bit too much.**


	7. Chapter 7

Punch.

Harry punched the giant rock.

Punch.

This was tedious. He'd been punching the rock for the last couple of hours.

Punch.

"Hey, Harry." Ron called from his spot over out of the way.

"Yeah?" Punch.

"This is boring." Ron observed.

"Yes. I am _well_ aware of that." Punch.

Kirito had, eventually, messaged them telling them he'd cleared the quest. Harry and Ron had shared a look, before heading over here as fast as they could. Which, given they could teleport, was pretty damn fast.

Punch.

"There's not even any wasps around here to beat up." Ron complained.

"You could help." Harry pointed out through grit teeth. Punch.

Ron blinked, "Really? Wouldn't that interfere with the quest?"

"No idea." Harry admitted. Punch.

"Better not risk wasting the time you've put into it so far." Ron decided.

Harry stopped punching, shaking with anger. Martial Arts sounded fun, but this was tedium bordering on sadism! "Damn it!" He shouted, swinging his hand back to throw everything he had into the punch.

The rock shattered.

Harry and Ron blinked, staring at the dispersing polygons.

"Huh." Ron observed.

"…"

"Harry? You there?" Ron jumped up, waving a hand in front of Harry's face.

"…Ron. Did that remind you of anything?"

"Huh?"

"The shattering, did it remind you of anything?" Harry asked softly.

"Err, of every time we kill something in this world?"

"Of a spell." Harry clarified.

Ron blinked, looking at the space where the rock had been. Several moments passed. "The reductor curse?"

"Yeah." Harry agreed. "That's what it reminded me of."

"Did you cast the spell?" Ron asked.

"…Accidentally." Harry admitted.

Ron winced, that was like magically wetting the bed at their age.

Something important occurred to him, "Do you have the skill?" he asked.

Harry navigated his menu, "No. But it says to talk to the old geezer."

"Let's do that then." Ron said eagerly.

Harry smiled weakly, "Yeah, let's go."

* * *

The atmosphere in the fields of the second floor was serious. It was the frontline in the effort at clearing Aincrad. It was filled only with brave players willing to put their life on the line. They treated the threat seriously, not playing around.

"Everybody was kung-fu fighting!" Ron sang, his hand glowing as it slammed into a wasp, turning it into pixels, "Nuhnuh nuhnuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh"

Well, it was mostly true, Harry amended, shooting forward to destroy a wasp of his own with his glowing foot. "Their kicks were fast as lightning." Harry sang.

It had taken a day for the quest to become ready to be given again, and Ron had wasted no time with trying to reducto the hell out of the giant rock. Failing that, he began punching it, to see if frustration would make it easier.

It hadn't been so simple. Harry had, however, really enjoyed trying to piss Ron off enough to blast it, figuring that intense emotion made it easier to do magic windlessly.

"You're both idiots." Hermione snapped.

Ron and Harry grinned at each other, before turning to their friend, "You're just jealous that you don't have wicked kung-fu fighting skill." Ron taunted.

"I don't want 'wicked kung-fu' fighting skills since you'd just drag me into your nonsense" She sighed, rubbing at her head. She really shouldn't get worked up at every stupid thing her friends did, she'd make her hair worse than it was, if that were possible.

Speaking of, "Why aren't you wearing armour, Harry?" she asked wearily.

Harry grinned at her, "I didn't like it."

She rubbed at her head, "You realise, that armour serves a very important purpose. It's not something that you can just decide not to use."

"Except I did." Harry pointed out.

Hermione grit her teeth.

"Oy, stop teasing her mate." Ron called out, punching the last wasp to pixels.

"Fine fine." Harry grumbled.

He walked over to Hermione, opening his menu to the skills page, before making it visible to her.

She stared at his skill list.

Unarmoured.

She stared at him flatly.

Harry chuckled.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Alright, so I got rid of the armour, and after taking a few hits, I noticed this appear in my skill list." He admitted.

She sighed again, looking at the skill. From what she could tell, it gave a slight boost to agility attack speed, and skill cooldown, but only if the user had absolutely no defence bonus from armour type objects. It might be a good skill, but with 'literally' no defence, it would require absurd reflexes to be able to dodge or parry everything. A single hit from even low level enemies would do serious damage, a boss might even one shot him. It was too risky. She opened her mouth to tell him to use his armour, when he tilted his head and smiled at her.

She sighed, she recognised that look; the 'I'm going to do something stupid and nothing you say will stop me' look.

"Fine, but be careful." She conceded.

Harry's smile turned into a grin, "Of course!"

More wasps spawned. Hermione frowned, a quick tally revealed that there was almost twice as many wasps as before. Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, before equipping their weapons.

"I'd noticed it before, but I think the system doesn't like us using magic. It's spawning more enemies around us. And what Kirito said, about the boss not switching aggro has me concerned. There's something I need to test out." She drew her weapon, a staff, walking forward to fight the enemies with her friends.

"Oh? Something about fighting?" Ron asked.

"Not exactly, I'll have to message someone, to see if they'll help me test it."

"Cool."

Hermione didn't reply, simply swung her staff at the nearest wasp.

* * *

After Hermione had levelled up a couple of times, they'd gone back to the town so Hermione could continue grinding blacksmith and start on tailoring, and Dudley wanted to get started on cooking, and Harry and Ron had said they were going back out exploring. Of course, went unsaid was that they were taking the opportunity to explore a higher floor.

"Hey Harry."

"Yeah?"

"There's nothing here."

"Yeah."

The two of them stood on the seventh floor. They had apparated up to the floor, expecting a thrilling battle, but they were disappointed. There were no enemies in sight. They'd walked for about half an hour, coming to a town, yet nothing. Not a single monster, not a single NPC, not a single damn thing. It was like a ghost town, only without ghosts.

"This is really annoying." Ron complained.

"I know." Harry snapped, "I guess nothing appears until we beat the boss on the floor below."

"That utterly sucks." Ron muttered.

"Come on." Harry sighed, "Let's go back. There's nothing to gain here."

* * *

Unspeakable brown stared down at the Potter boy. He had to admit, as a professional, he dearly wanted to run some… experiments on him. Surviving the AK, all the things that had happened to him since, his body was a veritable treasure trove of possible information. Unfortunately, the department wasn't on the fondest terms with him, his destroying a bunch of delicate equipment during his fifth year put several projects back several years.

He idly considered what he was about to do. Technically, it was illegal. It was an idea he hadn't even considered. If he hadn't decided to attend Unspeakable Poker Night at the last minute, he may never have considered it. It required magic which he would freely admit wasn't his specialty, so he _should_ get the department's specialist to assist, unfortunately, there was a problem with that. The man was a total arse. Any time people spoke to him he would strike a dramatic pose, and say what they wanted to say to him, moments before they said it. It was really annoying. He didn't want to deal with that guy.

He drew his wand, pointing it at the body in front of him, whispering a word, " _Legilimens."_

 _He was stood across from some kind of large cow. He stepped to the side as it charged at him, swinging his sword out, carving deeply into its body, and its HP gauge._

 _He was impressed, the game was really lifelike, wait, that wasn't his thought, ot rather, not a thought he'd had in at least a month, wait, this sort of thing was familiar, and now that he was paying attention, he could feel it, someone attacking his mind! Panic built, there was nothing he could do to the intruder. "Switch!" he shouted._

Unspeakable Brown grinned slightly, he'd been counting on Potter being able to detect it. He focused on an image, constructing a memory to force into the boy's mind, if he was skilled, it would meld seamlessly, but his inability to do so was actually good, he wanted the boy to realise what he was doing.

 _There was a cloaked figure, he recognised it as an Unspeakable. It was strange, he couldn't recall having talked to one before. The figure spoke to him. "I am Unspeakable Brown. I have been put in charge of your case."_

 _The storm of emotions slowed slightly, it made sense that someone would be put in charge of his body._

" _You're in the special Unspeakable wing at St Mungo's. We're considering means to extract you from the system, but we haven't found a safe method. Well, we have run into issues testing the safety."_

 _A large black man leapt forward, slamming his axe into the cow with a roar, using the 'Howl' skill to draw aggro. The cow ignored him, trying to continue its assault on Harry. He jumped to the side, slashing at it, as the black man struck it again, cutting its HP down to zero._

 _He felt a large amount of concern for the other players, would they be able to be extracted the same way?_ Unspeakable Brown guessed that was his question anyway. He constructed another memory.

 _The figure spoke again, "We will not be able to extract other players." It said, "The Japanese ministry has concluded this is a muggle affair, and will not be interfering. They have likewise, at least thus far, refused to put us into contact with the muggles dealing with this affair. We are creating a false organisation to make contact through muggle channels. It will take time, and we still wouldn't have authority to interfere with the muggle victims."_

 _A sense of hurt, a feeling of comradery._ Unspeakable Brown assumed he wanted to help the other players. The method of communication was too limited. They were working on something, but it wasn't anyway near completion. Had to make do. A new memory.

" _We are far from any safe extraction method, so we'll put that aside for now. This was mainly to get across that we are doing what we can on our end. Stay safe, and please observe everything carefully. The department is interested in this technology, and anything you can share when we are able to speak directly would be appreciated."_

Unspeakable Brown cut the connection. Ideally, he would have asked the boy if there was anything he wanted to ask, of any aid they could offer, but the method of communication was too limited. Still, it was good to know the boy was doing fine, and that his mental state wasn't filled with negative emotions like despair.

He pulled out the project journal and a quill and scribbled down his new observations, before vanishing silently back to the department headquarters.

* * *

Harry frowned as the rest of his party fought. Hermione had invited Agil to join them; she had wanted to test a theory. Said testing had involved the four of them drawing aggro on different mobs, and then switching with Agil, and letting him draw aggro.

It hadn't worked. Once a mob was attacking one of the four of them, it wouldn't stop. They could draw aggro from each other, but Agil couldn't. All of them could draw aggro away from Agil, but they couldn't then lose it. Of course, then the Unspeakable had interrupted, which was a whole other kettle of fish.

"You look distracted." Hermione observed. They were headed back to the town, having completed her observations. There was a field boss, and there was going to be a planning meeting to deal with it. Harry kind of wanted to attend.

"Yeah." He looked over at Agil. "Hey, Agil, do you know anything about a 'Department of Mysteries'?" He asked. Hopefully Japan used a similar name.

He scratched his head, "It's a research group, or something, right?"

Harry nodded, "Right. I was just contacted by them."

"Really?" Agil blurted out. The others looked interested, but less surprised.

"Yeah, the British one. Apparently the Japanese wizards have declared this mess has nothing to do with magic, and thus, nothing to do with them."

Agil frowned, but nodded. "That's disappointing, but not unexpected. Saving the eight thousand remaining players with magic would be a risk to their secrecy."

"Right. The guy who contacted me said they were working on something, but didn't have a safe way yet." He hesitated, "He also said that they wouldn't have the authority to extract anyone but the four of us."

Agil clenched his fist, "Damn. That stings."

Harry shrugged, "I couldn't really talk to him, it was," how to explain the method? "he could get a feel to my thoughts and implant fake memories, I couldn't really ask questions. He did say they were working on a better communication method. Well, I don't think I'll abandon everyone in here."

They continued walking in silence for a while.

"Hermione, what have we found out here?" Harry forcefully moved the conversation on.

"I can only guess it's due to magic, but I think the system is trying to prioritise our deaths over the other players. It explains the extra mob spawns when we're nearby, and the refusal to switch aggro." She explained.

"What about me? I don't use magic." Dudley explained.

Hermione hesitated, "I think it detects errors around us, and you're almost always nearby. I think if you party with other people frequently, the system will reassess you as being unrelated to the errors."

Dudley frowned, "I don't want to leave you guys."

"Dudley." Harry spoke, gathering their attention. "I'd ask you reconsider. It would be safer for you, and it would allow you to participate in something I'm thinking about."

"What's that?" Dudley asked.

"I can't say yet. I still need to think things over."

"We can help you." Hermione reminded softly.

"I know. Just trust me for now."

"Alright. So, the field boss?" Ron interrupted.

"Right. We'll go to the meeting and see what's up." Harry agreed.

* * *

The male player glared angrily at him. Harry recognised him; the player who had claimed Kirito was responsible for Diabel's death. While he'd held his tongue about spreading that grudge, he was clearly angry at Harry about it. Well, that was fine.

"I'll leave it to you." Harry said.

There were two main teams in front of him. One was led by Kibaou, decked out in green colours, the other was led by the male player, Lind, and were decked out in blue, like Diabel. They had formed around the named players, apparently acting like a guild until that function became available. (On that note, Harry looked forward to making a guild.)

There were other players around, a few teams, and a couple of players standing on their own, including Asuna.

"What, not going to fight yourself?" Lind snapped.

"No." Harry answered. "I'll take point on exploring the labyrinth when you defeat it. We'll try and find the boss room as fast as we can. We'll be on standby if it has any tricks, but I believe that you can take it.

* * *

The field boss had been defeated fine. The groups had a little friction, but it would probably work itself out. Harry had wasted no time in advancing into the labyrinth. He had Ron and Dudley with him; Hermione still wanted to do some experimenting with the crafting skills.

"I feel a bit like that Theseus chap." Harry commented as he stepped past the minotaur's hammer swing, slashing at its exposed back, cutting a chunk off its HP bar. It turned, to swing again as Dudley rushed in, using a skill with his two handed sword, causing it to stumble and drop into the yellow. Capitalising on the chance, Harry swung his sword, chipping more off its HP until it was in the red, and Dudley's next attack destroying it.

The two of them turned and ran, assisting Ron who was fighting another minotaur. It was swiftly vanquished, causing the congratulations pop up to appear.

"Cool, new items." Dudley exclaimed with a grin. He pressed a couple of invisible buttons, and was engulfed in a flash as first his armour disappeared, and then a new thing materialised on him.

Harry and Ron stared. What he was wearing couldn't be called 'armour', since it was just a metal ring on his chest, with four leather straps coming off in the shape of an 'x'.

"Err, that's, nice, I guess?" Harry said.

Dudley flexed his arms. "I kinda like it." Dudley said, looking down at himself. Well, given he'd lost weight, and was a training boxer, he certainly had the physique for it. He had also equipped a two handed hammer, likely dropped by one of the minotaurs.

"You really have that Conan vibe going on." Harry observed.

"You're just jealous of my dashing good looks." Dudley retorted.

"My looks are way more dashing than yours." Harry cut back.

"Are not." Dudley said childishly.

Harry didn't dignify it with an answer. "Come on, let's just get a move on."

* * *

It took most of the night, but they steadily progressed through the labyrinth, finally arriving at the boss room. The large double doors stood in front of them, giving off an aura of menace. Well, that's what it felt like.

"Hey Harry." Ron said into the silence.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Do you wanna fight the boss?"

"…"

"It's too dangerous." Dudley replied. "We should just send out a message and form a raid party."

"Or," Harry said slowly, "we have a go at fighting it ourselves."

"No. That's too stupid." Dudley argued.

Harry and Ron exchanged a look, before turning to Dudley.

"I'm not changing my mind." Dudley insisted stubbornly, "Please trust me on this."

Harry sighed, before turning to Ron, "Can't be helped huh?"

Ron shook his head, "Well, it would be boring without Hermione I guess."

"Fine, we'll head back to town." Harry opened his menu, sending a message to all his 'friends' on the frontline, 'Found Boss, returning to town. We'll hold a strategy meeting tomorrow.'

"Let's get a move on then. Perhaps it's better this way, I suppose if we did beat the boss, the others would resent us." Harry said.

* * *

 **A.N. As it stands, I'm almost certainly going to skip the boss fight, and next chapter should begin the same sort of floor skipping as the actual series.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A.N. okay, been a while. I hit a few roadblocks, and glossed over a few scenes I was having trouble with. That said, if people want those scenes (or rather, similar ones) in the future more fleshed out, please feel free to request them.**

* * *

They had been on the third floor for less than a day. Already, what was probably the most important event of the third floor had been completed. They had yet to find the labyrinth, or even a field boss, but someone had successfully completed a quest that opened guild creation for all players.

Needless to say, within moments of finding this out, the Marauders rode again. Not literally, with all the actual members of the Marauders dead and all, but Harry had created a guild in their memory. Technically, the guild was called the 'Hogwarts Marauders'. The reason being, by including the name of the school, hopefully any wizards and witches that happened to be in the game would make contact.

Harry counted them as having bonus points thanks to the thematic naming he'd chosen, even if his friends all hated their names. He supposed it was a shame there was no convenient item to change character names.

He was seated in a church, the largest building in a town that was hopefully close to the Labyrinth.

"Thank you all for coming." He said to the other seated parties. Kibaou, of the Aincrad Liberation Front, Lind, of the Divine Dragon Alliance, A few other guilds that had popped up among the frontlines, a few players that hadn't joined a guild, including Asuna, Kirito, Argo and Agil.

The guilds had a few members with them, but not the entire organisations. Harry had all the new marauders with him. He looked around at the other players.

"The purpose for this meeting is fairly simple. While I'd prefer to not slow down the clearing effort, I think this is important. Kibaou, your guild is mainly players you gathered from the first floor after we defeated the first boss right."

"Yeah. That's right. Why?" The man answered.

Harry nodded, "It actually pertains to that. I think we should all try and spend time on the lower floors to help out the players that haven't started yet."

"Why?" Lind asked, "There's nothing wrong with helping players that are going to put their lives at risk, but why should we help?"

Harry nodded again, "A good point. Because much like Kibaou, I think we should try and bring more players into the frontline. Of course, not all of them. We don't want to limit our ability to level when we have to fight the bosses, but having more players here is a good idea. In addition, from a more personal level, you can use the opportunity to scout players that might have talent and bring them into your guilds. It brings me to a second point. I think we should think up ways to deal with boredom in the players unwilling to play the game."

"I can see acting as a safety net for players going out for the first time, but it's not our job to entertain people." Lind snapped.

"True," Harry said slowly, "but I can say from experience, boredom can drive people to reckless actions that put not only themselves, but others at risk. It may not be our problem, but if we can head off a threat like that, then I think we should at least consider it."

There were general mutterings throughout the hall. Harry hoped it was a good sign.

"How about something like a tournament?" One of the players asked.

"I'm sorry, you are?" Harry asked, not recognising the player.

"Heathcliff." The man introduced himself, "Especially if we find something like an arena on a later floor, we can hold a tournament. Not only would it serve to entertain the people wasting every day on the first floor, but if we have an entry fee, we can reward the winner, and practice our fighting skills in a safe environment." The man smiled, "Not to mention, it would be interesting to see how we compare against other players, rather than monsters that run on simple algorithms." He certainly seemed like a likable and reasonable fellow.

The mutterings seemed to shift in tone, sounding much better to Harry's ears. "It's a good idea, but it's not something we need to do right now. Our immediate goal is clearing floors. That's all I really wanted to say. Give the matter some thought, we can meet up again later if anyone thinks it's worth acting on, or wants to discuss specifics."

* * *

"All right, so you're the team I'm helping today, huh?" Dudley asked, looking at the players gathered before him. A young girl, with three older men. "My name is Dudley, unfortunately it isn't my avatar name, but please use it instead."

The players introduced themselves, Lisbeth, Takechi, Kakaro and The Doctor. Dudley looked around at the players, before continuing.

"I'm with the guild 'HM'. Basically, I'm here to show you the ropes, we'll be exploring the first floor, and I'll only step into your fights if you end up biting off more than you can chew. First things first, is making sure you've got a full set of gear, then we'll go into the field to learn the basics of fighting.

He saw the younger girl looking nervous, so he decided to try some encouragement. "Listen, this is my third time doing this, everything is going to be fine."

* * *

"So I officially call to order the fifth official meeting of the Hogwarts Marauders and all that stuff, yada yada." Harry said drolly.

"Dudley, so how was it today?" he continued in a less bored voice.

Dudley shrugged, "Nothing to report, really. The girl seemed interested in smithing, I'll show her the basics of that next time. Other than that, the guys were alright. They should be fine in no time at all."

Harry nodded, "Good. Again, sorry to push all of this on you Duds."

Dudley shook his head, "No, don't worry about it. Given the circumstances about you three, asking you to do it would be dangerous, or rather, outright reckless."

"Still, as a major guild, we're meant to have a big presence, but we can only entrust it to you."

Ron shrugged, "Can't be helped, can it? Anyway, Hermione, any news on the magic front?"

Hermione leaned forward, "As a matter of fact, yes. Suicides and such have trailed off, at least for now, but if we take a setback, it may turn around. I've got an idea to counter that. We go to the major towns, and drop a cheering charm around, tie it to a building. It'll be weaker, but it should hit everyone in the vicinity. Hopefully, we wouldn't need to do much after that beyond checking the charms."

Dudley raised an eyebrow, "would that work?"

Hermione nodded, "Yes, I've tested it out on Agil. He said it made him feel cheery. Harry, you've got the best grasp of wandless magic, I'd suggest you go and drop the charms."

Harry nodded, "Okay. I'll get on that. Anything else?"

Hermione hesitated, before manipulating her menu, materialising a sword, which landed on the table with a thud.

Harry glanced at it, it seemed like an ordinary sword.

Seeing no-one making a move to examine, she sighed, "It's a magic sword." She muttered.

There was a round of applause from Ron and Harry.

"It's not anything special. It has an incredibly low sharpness stat, but cuts like it's much higher. This means I could beef up its other stats."

"Nonetheless, it's a good start. We should probably avoid anything blatant like having a flaming sword."

"Aww, but that would be so cool though." Ron whined.

"Yeah, it would be awesome." Harry agreed, "But my point stands. Unless we find one in SAO, no flaming swords."

*ahem* Hermione fake coughed to get their attention. "Next, I want to back off on the blacksmithing. I'll leave that in Dudley's hands, I want to focus on other skills, making potions, tailoring, to name but a few."

Harry shrugged, before looking at Dudley.

The blonde brought a hand to his chin. "I don't mind. Between that and looking out for the other teams, I don't know if I'll be able to keep up my level for the frontline though."

Harry and Ron exchanged glances, "Don't worry, the two of us can handle our presence on the front line."

The room fell into a silence. "Right. With that, this meeting is called to a close. Now then, let's get us fed, then me and Ron will go back into the field."

* * *

Aincrad. Eighth floor. A beautiful, verdant forest. Walkways suspended from the trees, above the shimmering water that covered the entire field.

It was a scenery unlike any Harry had seen in his life.

"Hey Ron."

"Yeah Harry?"

"When this is over, so you want to visit the amazons?" Harry asked, speaking of a popular wizard tourist site in the amazon forest, run by a tribe that had dwelled there since time untold.

Ron tilted his head, looking around at the massive trees. "I don't know," he said slowly, "It looks good here, but I'm pretty sure the trees there try to kill you."

"Half the fun." Harry pointed out.

Ron blinked, before breaking out into a grin, "Hah! Yeah, you're right. It's a plan." He agreed.

Harry smiled, "Excellent."

They'd spent the night exploring the forest. Some things changed between night and day, so sometimes it was worth looking at different times. Either way, they'd been running on enervates for the last two or three days, and they were going to spear point the labyrinth exploration in five or six hours, so they were heading back to the town so they could teleport back to their inn.

They could have apparated, but Harry didn't like the sensation.

Ron blinked again as Harry suddenly stopped, back as stiff as a steel bar.

"Harry?" Ron asked.

Harry ignored him, instead spinning in place and pointing at a passing player. "OY, You!"

The player in question turned, blinking in shock as he pointed at himself questioningly, "Er, me?"

"Yeah." Harry said cooly, walking up to him. Ron took the chance to examine the player. Reddish hair, scraggly not-quite beard, nothing really special about him.

"Er, sorry, can I help you?" he asked, his team turning to face them as well. Ron took the chance to assess them. Harry paid them no heed.

"Yeah." He suddenly pointed at the man, or rather, his forehead. "That thing on your head, where did you get it?" he asked.

"Huh?" the man blinked in surprise, "My bandana? I started with it. I think most tailors sell them as well, I think, er, perhaps?"

Harry suddenly smiled, his entire demeanour changing. "Great, really thanks. When I saw it, it was like, I'd suddenly found something I'd been missing my entire life. As thanks, what do you say to getting a round, on me?" he asked cheerfully.

"uh, sorry. We're going out to explore for quests. Maybe some other time?" the man asked.

Harry shrugged, "Sure." He manipulated his menu sending a friend request. "My name is Griffin, of the Marauders."

"Klein, of the Fuurinkazan." The man introduced.

"Later then." Harry said, turning to walk away.

Ron followed him, though he overheard them talking as they left.

"Hey, wasn't that the one they call the captain?"

"Is it? It felt like he was going to attack us."

"He definitely felt like a top player."

Ron smirked. He'd have to step up his game. He had no intention of letting Harry get ahead.

* * *

A familiar white space. Harry casually brought his steaming cup to his lips. He suppressed a grimace; it had the flavour, but it was missing something, something fundamental. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

He looked around, well, it was hardly surprising.

"Any news?" He asked.

Dumbledore shook his head with a frown, "unfortunately, there is not. I, nor anyone I speak to, can offer any insight as to the current situation."

Harry closed his eyes, managing to stop himself from sighing. "And, about that other thing?" he asked carefully.

Dumbledore looked pained, "No. Myself, Sirius, Remus, Nymphadora, even Severus. We can feel when you want us, and feel obligated to come. But… your parents…"

"…Nothing, right?" he asked.

Dumbledore nodded carefully, "I am sorry Harry, but they have never noticed if you tried to summon them."

Harry couldn't supress the sigh this time. "Alright, let's talk about some theories, shall we?"

"Alright."

Harry opened his eyes, "First; I can only bring people I know first-hand. Mom, Dad, I have no memories of them as people, and can't bring them."

Dumbledore said nothing, carefully examining him over his half-moon spectacles. Harry ignored the outfit the man had shown up in. It would hurt his eyes to actually look at the clothes.

"Second;" he took a deep breath, "this has something to do with the Hallows."

Dumbledore let out a sharp breath, "It is a bit premature to say that. The circumstances surrounding you, hallows aside, is unique enough." He reminded.

Harry shook his head, "No. I can't explain, it's the Hallows. They're mixed up in this. I have no idea what it means, but I'm certain it's the cause; I am the Master of Death."

As the words passed his lips, he felt something change. He had no idea what, but something definitely did. He was almost surprised that there was no accompanying roll of thunder. It would have fit the mood.

"…I am sorry, Harry."

Harry smiled sadly, "It isn't your fault Albus."

"But I-"

"Did what you had to." Harry interjected, "With the horcrux, I had to die. There was no other way. You made a gamble on the million to one shot that the Hallows might save me, and" he held out his arms, "here I am. You may be responsible, but you're not at fault. You have nothing to apologise for."

Dumbledore chuckled, "Your heart is to kind Harry. I hope you won't make the same mistakes I did."

Harry laughed softly, "Who knows."

* * *

Harry opened his eyes. The familiar ceiling of their room at some farmhouse on the eighth floor. There was something… different. He couldn't put his finger on it. He laughed softly again, it was hardly surprising, it was the same amiss sensation which had started while he'd been talking with the headmaster.

He lay in bed, staring at the virtual ceiling, just… thinking. These moments, when he was alone, well, he amended, looking aside at the sleeping forms of his best friends, mostly alone. All three of them, they just felt comforted knowing the others were nearby.

Of course, he felt a bit bad, they were a couple now, it felt like he was a third wheel, intruding where he wasn't wanted. He shook his head, back to what he was thinking about. He knew he was prone to bouts of depression and morbid musings, but he couldn't bring himself to rouse them, even if Ron and Hermione never failed to lift his mood.

With a sigh, he eventually forced himself out of bed, moving towards the kitchen. With that came a sight he could never get used to; namely his cousin Dudley, dressed like someone from Conan the Barbarian, and making breakfast. Honestly, he didn't know which of those two things surprised him more.

"Morning Harry." Dudley called.

Harry grunted in response. "I can never get used to seeing you cook."

Dudley laughed, "I know right? A big change from when you used to cook for the rest of my family."

Harry snorted.

"Hey, don't be that way, I'm getting pretty good." Dudley defended.

Harry had to admit, his cooking in SAO was good, he wouldn't say that though. "Put us in a real kitchen and I'd kick your arse."

Dudley burst out laughing, "True, true. What'll you be up to today?"

Harry shrugged, unseen by his cousin. Truthfully, players didn't have to do much to cook, but Dudley had his own way of doing things. He liked to watch them closely while cooking. "Don't know. Probably check out the next floor." He mused. They'd beaten the boss; no great challenge, they seemed to be getting used to things now.

Dudley hmmed, "I see. I was going to do a bit more mentoring."

Harry nodded, "honestly, I'd like to join you, I've always enjoyed that kind of thing."

"Really? Didn't think it'd be your scene."

Harry leaned back, "Back in school, I started a club, teaching people to defend themselves. It was fun, and I seemed to be pretty good." Of course, they didn't have many shining examples to hold himself up against.

There came the sound of a door opening behind them. Ron walked in with a yawn, "G'morning."

"Morning." Harry returned, while Dudley grunted in acknowledgement. Dudley was still a bit uneasy around the redhead at times.

"H-Harry!" came Hermione's voice.

"Yeah?" he responded, turning to his friend who had walked in behind her boyfriend.

"Y-your name!"

Harry blinked, "Huh?"

"Blimey mate, it's changed!" Ron said.

"Huh?" Harry repeated.

"Just look at it!" Hermione insisted.

He did so, glancing up to the corner of his vision. The moment he did so, his blood seemed to go cold. Where the word 'Griffin' was usually displayed, instead read three letters; 'M.o.D.' He gulped. That may have been the root cause of the strange sensation.

He looked at the worried faces of his friends. He wasn't ready to talk about it, he doubted he ever would be, but this was a good chance to mention it.

He took a deep breath, resolving himself. "Ron, Hermione." Another breath, "I, I need to say something, about what happened in that forest, with Voldemort." He took a deep breath, "I-I died."


End file.
